On the petition is states:
“If you believe that telecom and cable companies should perhaps be taxed in order to help compensate a Free Culture for music on the web (this can be done without raising the price of broadband to the end user), please sign this petition.”

I am curious how this tax would be paid without it increasing the price the consumer pays. For the record, I would support something like this, if it also covered other media and not solely music. Currently I prefer the option to pay an artist directly where facility is provided (Dan Bull was last to receive some money from me for his free album and Dear Lily video). I do however realise that I am not in the majority in my willingness pay sometimes and a “tax” might be useful.

Would the artists actually receive it though. Do they receive funds from the current media taxation in places such as Canada? I have read comments that they don’t and it just *vanishes* but that is hearsay.

Imagine the Sheriff of Nottingham persuading all the peasants that if they let him look after 10% of all their earnings he’ll give back 33% of it to each according to how culturally productive they are, but he’ll keep 67% as the cost of paying the collectors and auditors to ensure no-one cheats.

People eventually figure out that a free* market is a tad more efficient.

In other words we keep our $100, and spend only $10 on just those few artists we would favour, who we feel stand out from the rest and would encourage to produce more. The best artists end up just as relatively better off as they would anyway, but we’re all vastly better off given we’re not paying $100 to get back $33 on average, sometimes $20, sometimes $40.

* Free markets are those without monopolies or levies.

This concept also strongly relies on large collecting societies of which I am not a real fan, I must say..

It will be very likely that the organizations doing that will be the middelmen the internet makes obsolet and we want to cut out. I’d like to focus your attention on an alternative way how this problem could be solved without a central organization.

I wrote it down here: http://a2f2a.com/2009/10/27/louie-louies-jack-ely-joins-a2f2a/#comment-263

I’d be happy to have this concept considered within this discussion, too.

Anything that suggests an internet tax does nothing BUT serve monopoly interests, since those monopolies hold the majority of the copyrights ( not the artists ). My hope is that future generations of musicians simply ignore the labels completely, and do it themselves. They will then own their own copyrights and be able to make their own deals. That’s what will end the labels hold on things. Allowing the labels money for nothing without accountability will only allow them to close yet another avenue for artists to carve their own path.

I don’t recommend anyone who REALLY wants to break the labels monopoly sign this petition.

Yes we do, that’s why we’re all here.
That’s also why the rules have been setup the way they have, so that you can feel reasonable comfortable enough to speak your true feelings without needing a ‘Flame Suit’.

” You go into music out of LOVE. That’s it. ”

Can’t argue with that. I also can’t argue with a need to make a living. How you define making a living may be different that how others would define it. The labels aren’t the only way to make a living at it anymore, if you make music that others like. Just because you make it doesn’t mean that everyone will want it, and the labels forcing it down our throats won’t make us want it more or less. If you define making a living as meeting your basic needs without worry and having some left over for fun, then your definition matches mine, and that goal WAS achievable for me ( at one time ) without the labels. Your still young, so this definition of making a living IS achievable to you, without the labels.

” I have been privy to hear what the other players plan. Unfortunately, it’s not what most internauts want to hear. AS I’ve said before, i don’t think it’s fair, but, it’s bound to happen. ”

It doesn’t have to. If you truly believe that it’s not the right way to go .. DON’T SUPPORT IT. Even though your hands didn’t create the rule, you have seen for yourself, you and your peers will suffer the brunt of the backlash because the labels hide behind you the way a coward hides behind a child. Yes, it’s a risk. and yes it’s hard to do, but the right thing is usually the toughest thing to do.

First of all, welcome to a2f2a!
I’m happy to see you here, and also pleasantly surprised.

Let me just grab a few of your points to expand…

1) “In reality, artists share their opinions through their art.”

While “expression” through art is one of the things that keep the fans fascinated, the current mess we’re here to discuss is not going to be addressed by anything but good, constructive conversation between the diverse minds of both artists and the fans.

2) “Most artists aren’t willing to risk alienating their fanbase for their opinions.”

One thing that was already established, and sparked the creation of this site, was that the horse is already out of the barn on that one.

The fanbase was already alienated and criminalized. Yes, this was done by your labels, of course, but their propaganda was also spread throughout the artist community as well. Some artists, not knowing any better at the time, jumped on the same podium and repeated their labels’ words, either because they truly believed what they were saying, or because their extortionary contracts had them in a bind where they couldn’t speak their own mind.

This did a lot of damage to the artists and the fans, and the relationship of the two. Damage that needs to be repaired immediately, if music is to remain a viable career base in the digital world. Hence, sparked by some much-needed exchange between Billy, Jon and the very P2P community being debased by the Industry, a2f2a arose.

It should be a “given” that, on any internet forum, those that don’t want their identity known (either “at the time”, or “ever”) can always comment anonymously. The sum of everyone’s input will be what does it – not necessarily the knowledge of who any of it came from.

Obviously, I’m not using my true name here (yet?) either.
What I can tell you is I was an aspiring keyboard-playing musician in my younger years, but who didn’t pursue music as a career. I’m a digital graphic artist, but I never lost touch with music.

So, I’m essentially from the “consumer” side of this equation, as are virtually all of the others that are currently posting comments here (hence my original comment).

3) “I have my ideas and opinions. Not sure if you really want to hear them”

YES, WE DO!!

I would rather see 100 opinions I don’t agree with presented by artists, than to see a half-dozen seemingly good ideas passed around by only the P2P world. (What good would they be?)

The idea here is, the labels have taken artists into a direction that increasingly fails as we venture deeper into the digital world. The labels are the only ones currently making any real money from music, and they’re in danger of becoming obsolete. And, they don’t care about the performers, or the customers who buy their recordings, as they struggle to save a failing business model.

A new model is needed.
Possibly one that gets rid of many middlemen in the picture. (Think of the savings!)
Who’s going to design such a model, if not the artists themselves, with the encouragement and support of the very fan base you need to recoup?

4) “I have been privy to hear what the other players plan. Unfortunately, it’s not what most internauts want to hear.”

You’d probably be surprised at this point exactly what the internet community has to say about all this! We’re no strangers to what the propaganda has done to “both sides” of this relationship.

The problem with what “some other players plan” is that many of the things they’re “planning” are only backed by people like their labels and a handful in various governments. Such things don’t have the support of the fans, and indeed!, still require them to engage in some very “anti-fan”/”anti-consumer” activities, and will ultimately backfire.

I’m confident many such artists will see through this kind of self-destructive strategy before they even get their hands dirty. Hopefully, we will see them “here”.

The Government spends millions, and achieves nothing. figures may very well drop on filesharing reports, but the amount won’t change one bit, it will just be done differently and in a way that will be hard to measure. The only way to tell will be from traffic througput and that is no measure at all as it is a catch-all… Illegal VPN traffic looks just the same as legal, same with ftp etc.

All that happens when they approve this is that £5 or £10 per month went from my disposable income that may have been spent on a film, music or game, into a VPN.