Canadian Songwriters Want Mandatory $10 P2P Tax

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Would allow file-sharers to download as much as they want, but Internet users could only opt-out in writing and the fee wouldn't cover record label royalties.

The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC) is back at it again with a proposal to legalize P2P in exchange for a tax on Internet connections.

Back in late 2007 SAC released "A Proposal for the Monetization of the File-Sharing of Music" which would make it legal to share music with others online in exchange for a compulsory $5.00 "licensing fee" added to every Internet subscription bill each month.

"We believe the time has come to put in place a reasonable and unobtrusive system of compensation for creators of music in regard to this popular and growing use of their work," it said at the time.

Soon after the Canadian Music Creators Coalition (CMCC) also endorsed the proposal.

The Canadian Record Industry Assn. (CRIA), however, called the tax a "pipe dream"that wouldn't "resolve the industry's problems."

SAC floated the idea again in 2009. This time Bill Henderson, SAC's VP, emphasized the need for a collaborative relationship of sorts with P2P.

"Attempts to sue it [P2P] out of existence are futile," he said. "They alienate our audience, and earn us no money."

Now SAC is back at it with new comments made by SAC's President, Eddie Schwartz. He's proposing to charge all Internet users $10 a month in exchange for legalizing P2P, and it's a plan he hopes to begin testing by the end of the year.

"All of the rights that we need are actually already in Canada's copyright laws," said Schwartz. "We thought, 'all we need to do is come up with a private business model that monetizes file-sharing.' That's what we set out to do, modify the (original) proposal so that there was a private way to achieve the same results without needing to get legislation."

That's the thing. The plan is attempting to sidestep legislation through commercial partnerships with ISPs that automatically taxes everybody for the habits of a few. Internet users can only opt out of ISP tax scheme, and some Canadian provinces like Ontario have strong consumer laws that prevent so-called "negative" billing.

Yet, the real problem is that none of the money would go to record labels meaning the Canadian Recording Industry Association could still pursue file-sharers for illegal file-sharing.

Graham Henderson, CRIA President, said a better proposal is to "look at what the market has to offer and give it a chance. That way, we might actually get somewhere. We need to promote these legal services. People don't even know these services exist."

The notion of a monthly P2P tax sounds good, but unless it's reasonable ($10 or less), all copyright holder groups are on board, and Internet users have to opt-in rather than opt-out the plan is pretty much dead on arrival.

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