I usually try not to post twice in a day, particularly not on the same topic (there is more techie content coming soon, honest) but this has the potential to be big news: the Danish branch of the International Federation of Phonogram and Videogram Producers “has seriously proposed allowing unrestricted downloads of music over peer-to-peer networks, in exchange for a modest monthly fee to be charged to all ISP users.”
This is a significant crack in the armor of the industry copyright zealots, and it’s strange that I can’t find an English-language announcement anywhere. My contacts say that the suggested monthly fee is 100 kroner, or approximately 16 Euros.
16 Euros is a little more than I pay for my emusic subscription, but this would be for a lot more music than the 65 downloads that buys me, and presumably the proposal is for all recorded music currently available through any major label, not just the selection emusic gets access to.
I remain sceptical that this will fly with ISPs, who the proposal suggest should pay the fee on behalf of their customers. 16 Euros is quite a hefty addition to the average internet connection charge.
I’d also quibble with Andy’s assertion that “the Danish IFPI represents the content producers themselves”: the IFPI represents “the recording industry worldwide” which isn’t quite the same thing as the content producers. If we use ‘production’ in the sense of ‘management of budgets, logistics, etc’ then perhaps the IFPI represents them, but there’s a significant difference between representing “the recording industry” and representing those whose creative work is being recorded (or is recording, for that matter.
Quibbles aside, this is a fascinating development.