Recently the Intertron has been abuzz with news that representatives from the American music industry will be actively lobbying for the introduction of some sort of flat rate tax implemented by the ISPs. There is a cacophony of commentators explaining why this is a really bad idea and so I suppose I don’t really need to add my tiny voice, but I think that because I have a blog my ISP mandates that I do.

So, ya, it’s a really bad idea, and here are a few of the top of mind reasons why:

1. Government policy makers become (continue to be?) willing thugs who wring extortion money from the citizenry on behalf of their corporate keepers.
2. The money is a guaranteed income unattributed to performance. See above.
3. All internet users are convicted guilty of crimes perpetrated by only some.
4. The industry thus far has a poor record in fairly allocating money. Case in point: money earned from suing Napster, Sharman Networks, et al.
   Odd little side note: the image used by the NY Post features Billy Joe Armstrong of Green Day who, in concert with Pepsi, produced the infamous Superbowl FUD ad.
5. Assuming the copyright holders do loosen the purse strings and pay artists it will be their artists. Independent artists or those not willing or able to sidle up to the money trough will be left out.
6. I’m speculating, but there’s no way this tax would be the end of it. There will be a catch. Say, you’ll be able to download all the major label music you want, but you’ll still be on the hook for anything else.

Closer to home, a similar approach was taken on recordable media whereby CDs, DVDs, etc. were subject to an additional levy determined by their relative capacity. Although struck down in late 2003 it’s bloated corpse poked it’s decayed hand through the soil last year, but the courts once again struck the levy down. I hope similar conclusions would be reached should this copyright levy ever be tabled.

In other news, the MPAA would like to just have ISPs police every bit carried on their networks.

Is it just me, or does all this seem like the desperate stomping of ground by a dying mammoth?