Paying A Copyright License Fee To ISPs For Entertainment
from the is-this-where-we're-going dept
For a while now, I've been wondering about what AOL is thinking. Here's a company that's trying to jumpstart broadband adoption - and they keep saying they need a "killer app". Meanwhile, the other side of their business is desperately trying to shut down Napster/Kazaa/Morpheus and other file sharing systems - which might be exactly the adoption drive they're looking for. I wondered why AOL didn't just offer (for $1 more per month) or whatever, all of their users with the ability to do whatever they wanted with Time Warner's catalog of music. Well, I know their answer why, but I think it's the wrong answer. However, now the idea of paying the ISP a "copyright fee" for the sake of downloadable music is slowly starting to gain more traction. Today someone from Verizon basically said that such a fee could solve a number of problems for the entertainment industry. What they didn't say was it could also solve a number of problems for the broadband industry. Two birds? One stone?
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