Should colleges pay a fee to the record labels for students to have access to unlimited music? That idea has been floated for a while, as has the concept of a broader ISP-level "music tax."
Now, it looks as if proponents of the idea are making a more serious push. Techdirt reports that some colleges, including
Columbia, Stanford and MIT, have been in talks about the prospect of paying a licensing fee in exchange for a promise that students won't be sued for file-sharing, among other things.
The
schools were shown an eight-slide presentation outlining this proposal, which includes a provision stating that students would be able to "access and use music any way they want to through the campus
net," without being subject to lawsuits.
Warner Music's name appears in the presentation, but the label says it had nothing to do with creating the slides that are now making the rounds.
Nonetheless, Warner is exploring alternatives to its current approach -- which so far has involved an endless stream of lawsuits against individual Web users. Jim Griffin, hired by Warner in March to develop a fee-for-access plan, says the company is "actively engaged with
universities and other parties to seek a constructive resolution to a complex issue -- how to assure artists appropriate compensation while enabling the widespread dissemination of their work among
fans."
He adds that Warner is trying to "develop new voluntary business models that seek something other than -- and we believe, better than -- a litigation-based approach."
Clearly, there are better ideas than the current RIAA litigation campaign, which has disrupted the lives of thousands of unlucky people, extracting thousands of dollars from those who have settled and
embroiling others in potentially ruinous lawsuits. What's more, in the five years that the record industry has been suing individuals, losses have continued to mount, while there's no sign that
file-sharing has abated.
Still, it's not certain whether colleges or students will think that a licensing fee approach is workable. Some undoubtedly will view the proposal an attempt to
shake colleges down. But, in some ways, lawmakers might have paved the way for this idea. Last summer, Congress passed legislation requiring colleges that receive federal financial aid to develop
plans to combat piracy. It seems plausible that at least some colleges will decide it would be cheaper and easier to simply pay the record companies one upfront fee.