I’ve mentioned in the past how my current favorite solution to the crisis surrounding electronic distribution of content is to use a version of the model in canada – taxes flow into a fund that is shared amongst the artists. In Canada’s case they’re currently doing this with recordable media – my suggestion has been to apply the taxes to everyone’s internet connection. Now an economist has run some analysis on this model and concluded that for $6 a month ‘consumers would pay less for more entertainment’ and his conclusion is it’s a sustainable economic model.

The biggest impediment to something like this coming to pass, assuming the analysis is sufficiently accurate? The content companies stranglehold (through campaign contributions) on our elected officials. Once again, a plea to vote responsibly – we need campaign finance reform and we need to make it clear to our legislators that we want the copyright dillema resolved not through criminalization of P2P and DRM on everything from our TV’s to our toasters, but through an approach that extends the concepts of fair use.