British legislators are floating a package of proposals to deal with the problem of illegal downloads, including one that would levy an annual charge of up to £30 ($59) for Internet users to cover illegal downloading, according to The Independent. The recording industry estimates a loss of £1 billion over the next five years in the UK because of illegal downloads. In the U.S., similar ideas have been proposed as well.
The annual charge proposal would cover any illegal downloads, but the music industry would have to seriously underestimate what consumers spend on downloads to justify the annual fee. Why would those who regularly pay for music downloads continue to pay if they were going to be taxed whether they have illegal downloads or not?
Some commenters at The Independent suggest that the £30 fee is either not part of the package, or at least not the proposal that should be getting the most attention, and the Times Online agrees. One of the proposals would punish parents whose children download content illegally by blacklisting them, subjecting them to online surveillance, and choking their bandwidth. The UK's six largest broadband providers have agreed to this plan rather than one that would completely disconnect offenders under a three-strikes proposal.
Again, the music industry seems determined to toss the baby out with the bathwater, however, viewing only losses and not profits from those downloading legally. Services like iTunes and Amazon offer distribution methods that eliminate typical costs associated with the physical media copies of movies and music. Draconian legislation will only discourage those who do pay for content, and cut into revenues even further.
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