This post turned out rather bipolar. Please bear with me. I might bite on such a deal... It doesn't, however, give full moral absolution as RIAA/MPAA only cove

This post turned out rather bipolar. Please bear with me. I might bite on such a deal... It doesn't, however, give full moral absolution as RIAA/MPAA only covers a subset of all the artists hit by file sharing. And at that, they only support the guys I wouldn't give a dime. So on second thought, perhaps I might not bite on such a deal. It is a good idea, though..if we could somehow push in some organization which fairly distributes the copyright infringement tax (fat chance of that!) artists could be fairly compensated for whatever amount of money we can finally agree they lose to "illegal downloads". On another note..your idea wouldn't work after all, because it would be voluntary, and hence the MAFIAA wouldn't get the coverage they slaver for. Even if a copyright tax could be successfully implemented, it would, as the history of such taxes suggests, remain in place indefinitely, even long after it has lost its relevance. Which is incredibly stupid. Why can't we cover this budgetary post with the money from a tax instituted to pay the welfare of coach drivers removed from business by the automobile, or something in that vein? All things considered, this idea seems just as harebrained as everything the RIAA comes up with...