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I saw a tiny segment on TV2 News, about how the Antipirate Group is considering proposing a tax on going on the internet, the money to be used to compensate the artists for illegal downloading.
And I am now going to rant about this, because that kind of thinking just pisses me off.
Because first of all, we already have a tax on going on the internet. It's called the media license. Legally, if you own the means to get online, you have to pay. Really, it's just a tax.
Second, part of the problem isn't that people are acquiring music in less than completely legal ways. They've been doing that since everybody was playing with tapes. An organization like CopyDan (basically, people who ensure that artists receive money in compensation for various uses in public spheres) is actually partly funded by a small extra amount paid every time you buy an empty, recordable media - dvd, cd, vhs, usb stick. However, they get no money for things like MP3 players or harddisc recorders, so basically they are getting less and less money - and at the sime time, more and more stuff is acquired over the internet, in ways that noone really keeps track of.
So, here's my suggestion, humble as it is. First, ditch the media license and simply introduce a straightforward media tax, which would have the advantage of being income dependant and therefore not as much of a drain on the resources of poor students, for instance. Make it automatic, not dependent on you admitting you have a tv. Maybe change the law so new MP3 players and suchlike also has to cost a tiny bit extra - considering the relative amounts involved compared to all the empty cds you used to have to buy, it's still cheap.
Second, force every media to be fully integrated in the library system. No loopholes. No fucking karenstid. No dvd publishers deciding which dvds can be available where. And dear music and dvd industry - stop bitching - seriously, have a chat with the book publishers. They always bitch about the library not buying enough, while you actively try to stop the library from buying - and the stupid thing is, dvds and cds need replacement copies a lot more often than nice solid paper books.
Third, expand netmusik, netlydbog, filmstriben - expand, expand, expand. Make a system where you can legally and freely download a temporary copy of whatever you want. Music, e-books, movies, television series, yet unknown media. Not just Danish stuff, but everything - all the stuff that you currently can't get if you don't download them illegally. Oh, and remember the long tail, okay? Remove the limits of downloading currently imposed - it's all well and good that you can watch movies free and legally, but most people watch more than three movies a month, or read more than three books, or...
Finally, you take the big bag of money from the media tax (because seriously, stop wasting it on DR, they don't deserve it and it's not public service to piss of a large segment of your population like that) and maybe a couple of other places (perhaps sponsorships or advertising in front of movies downloaded - like in the cinema?) and use them to revice the current system of library money, because it is a brilliant system. Basically, make a system not of compensation, but of cultural support given directly to the creators of culture in your nation, calculated based on how much use they see in libraries and through downloading. Ignore the various foreign people to begin with - it's not like they get library money either - besides, it's not like places like the US seem to want our money. I mean, if they did, surely they'd make it possible for the average Dane to acquire their products easily and legally - if we're a too tiny market for them to care about now, then they won't miss what they never had. Maybe later they could get integrated in the system completely - but of course, if they don't want all of it, they won't get the money. Fair's fair.
And for my next trick, let's abolish the system of television channels. Ned med overformynderiet. Viva la revolution!
And I am now going to rant about this, because that kind of thinking just pisses me off.
Because first of all, we already have a tax on going on the internet. It's called the media license. Legally, if you own the means to get online, you have to pay. Really, it's just a tax.
Second, part of the problem isn't that people are acquiring music in less than completely legal ways. They've been doing that since everybody was playing with tapes. An organization like CopyDan (basically, people who ensure that artists receive money in compensation for various uses in public spheres) is actually partly funded by a small extra amount paid every time you buy an empty, recordable media - dvd, cd, vhs, usb stick. However, they get no money for things like MP3 players or harddisc recorders, so basically they are getting less and less money - and at the sime time, more and more stuff is acquired over the internet, in ways that noone really keeps track of.
So, here's my suggestion, humble as it is. First, ditch the media license and simply introduce a straightforward media tax, which would have the advantage of being income dependant and therefore not as much of a drain on the resources of poor students, for instance. Make it automatic, not dependent on you admitting you have a tv. Maybe change the law so new MP3 players and suchlike also has to cost a tiny bit extra - considering the relative amounts involved compared to all the empty cds you used to have to buy, it's still cheap.
Second, force every media to be fully integrated in the library system. No loopholes. No fucking karenstid. No dvd publishers deciding which dvds can be available where. And dear music and dvd industry - stop bitching - seriously, have a chat with the book publishers. They always bitch about the library not buying enough, while you actively try to stop the library from buying - and the stupid thing is, dvds and cds need replacement copies a lot more often than nice solid paper books.
Third, expand netmusik, netlydbog, filmstriben - expand, expand, expand. Make a system where you can legally and freely download a temporary copy of whatever you want. Music, e-books, movies, television series, yet unknown media. Not just Danish stuff, but everything - all the stuff that you currently can't get if you don't download them illegally. Oh, and remember the long tail, okay? Remove the limits of downloading currently imposed - it's all well and good that you can watch movies free and legally, but most people watch more than three movies a month, or read more than three books, or...
Finally, you take the big bag of money from the media tax (because seriously, stop wasting it on DR, they don't deserve it and it's not public service to piss of a large segment of your population like that) and maybe a couple of other places (perhaps sponsorships or advertising in front of movies downloaded - like in the cinema?) and use them to revice the current system of library money, because it is a brilliant system. Basically, make a system not of compensation, but of cultural support given directly to the creators of culture in your nation, calculated based on how much use they see in libraries and through downloading. Ignore the various foreign people to begin with - it's not like they get library money either - besides, it's not like places like the US seem to want our money. I mean, if they did, surely they'd make it possible for the average Dane to acquire their products easily and legally - if we're a too tiny market for them to care about now, then they won't miss what they never had. Maybe later they could get integrated in the system completely - but of course, if they don't want all of it, they won't get the money. Fair's fair.
And for my next trick, let's abolish the system of television channels. Ned med overformynderiet. Viva la revolution!
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From:
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Besides, dig deep enough and you realize that media companies always seem to cry foul, despite having no effect (http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2007/02/8813.ars), inflating figures (http://mashable.com/2010/01/13/app-store-piracy/) and have continued (http://torrentfreak.com/sony-ceo-pleads-poverty-but-the-movie-industry-is-loaded-091027/) making profit (http://www.the-numbers.com/market/2009.php) despite piracy.
Besides, the great thing about the internet is that (for the most part), location will never be an issue when money is involved. If you're not getting a dvd quick enough from your local store (or it's too cheap), a quick visit to Amazon or Ebay will provide cheap copies you can have posted within the same day.
If you want to increase funding for the library system, then petition your government (you can do that in Denmark, right?), rather than trying to implement a system that'll backfire.
From:
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Sorry, to tell you this, but considering DR is funded solely by the media license, which really is a media tax by any other name, just more annoying and quite impossible to get out of paying, even if you don't care about DR and think they are crap, and they made it a media license while they had the still present no-tax-raising thing. So.
Also, money is an issue when location is involved. If I am in Denmark, only a limited number of dvds (to take your example) ever get released here. Particularly genre dvds. We're a too small market for it to be cost-efficient. If I'm lucky, it's available somewhere within the EU. If I'm not, it's available in the US only - and even if I find it at the price of 1 single dollar with a little more for postage to DK, being thus cheap enough to slip under the toll minimum, there'll still be the administrative toll fee, meaning that no-matter how cheap I buy in the US, it will still cost about 200 kr minimum. That's about 35$, in case you were wondering.
Also, the media is already getting money from the government. Like I said, we're a tiny market. Add to that that we are also a highly expensive market - a nice new hardcover novel easily costs about those same 200 kr and you can consider that cheap, actually, though it's gotten a bit better recently with the free book prices. Movies, television series, computer games - hardly anything is ever made around here without substantial culture support from the state. Most theaters receive considerable support, otherwise they'd either hardly ever play or the tickets would be unbelievably expensive. Authors can get stipends, a few of them wind up - as we say - on the finance law - and of course they get the support of library money. Still, it's a select few who doesn't have a day job, especially since the market for Danish novels or movies or whatever is usually only Denmark, sometimes the rest of Scandinavia, sometimes other parts of Europe, but only very rarely the rest of the world.
Petitioning the government isn't easy and the current one is currently all "let's-save-money". When they are firing by the hundreds in the health service, trust me, they're not going to find any huge extra bag of money for libraries. Besides, even when they do, libraries see little of it. Some years ago, the government did give the libraries a huge extra bag of money, as part of the implementation of the new responsibilities regarding all the new media. However, the libraries only got a little of the money. You see, the state can't give that much money to libraries directly - only to the individual kommune, which is the part of the system that handles the libraries - and they couldn't force the kommuner to use it all on libraries, especially since each commune had all the usual concerns - schools, healthcare, daycare, retirement homes, etc. The welfare state is a greedy beast, and no matter how much you want money for culture, it can be hard to argue against the most basic things needing the money more. So, no more money, only growing expenses - libraries are legally obligated to make all media available, but dvds and cds and such are a lot more expensive than books. Even when you consider that libraries can't just drop in on a random booksale and buy cheap books, since various fees has to be paid, not to mention paying extra for the right to lend it to people. Still, dvds cost even more for a library - easily 500 kr, even for old movies that ordinary people can buy for 25 kr on sale occasionally. That's 500 kr minimum. More than 90$. And there's not even a discount when it inevitably gets worn up and needs replacing.
And this is getting long and convoluted and probably not really organized, but seriously, why on earth would I want to leave things as they are? Shouldn't we always try to improve things? Besides, I'm hardly in a position to implement anything - only the government is...