(via Kevin Werbach)
: I am a rabid libertarian when it comes to developing business models in the digital media sphere, but adding certain helper chemicals is not such a bad idea: the Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society has launched a new project called the “Digital Media Project“, which will look at the business, economic and social issues of distribution, use, and control of digital media. The project is being done in conjunction with Gartner G2. (For more background, read this story, “Berkman Center Awarded Grant“)
The project is exploring ways in which the legal system might be modified to exploit more fully the enormous economic and cultural opportunities latent in the new technologies for distributing music and film — while at the same time ensuring that artists are fairly compensated.
Although researchers expect that new approaches will emerge during the course of the project, initial analysis will focus on five models. They include the continuation of the status quo, which assumes continuation of the current U.S. copyright regime; legal enforcement of current laws, which would forecast what would happen if owners of digital media were better able to legally protect against unauthorized use and copying; technological enforcement of property rights, a model in which Digital Rights Management technologies are effectively used to limit online file-sharing; treating the Internet and intellectual property as a public utility with government regulation, and compulsory licensing, which would require creators and producers of digital content to be compensated by the government when their products are consumed.
As part of the project, the center is organizing a meeting on Dec 5, titled “Development of an Alternate Compensation System for Digital Media in a Global Environment“: an agenda overview can be downloaded here (PDF).
Meanwhile, John Palfrey, the head of Berkman Center, has written an essay on these alternative compensation systems: among the proposal being mooted is government rights body taxing devices and services used to gain access to digital entertainment. The primary target of such a tax would be ISP access. Secondary targets would include CD burners, blank CDs, MP3 players, and the like. Revenue collected from the tax would then be distributed by the government agency to creators in proportion to the rates with which their recordings were being heard or watched.
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