Isle of Man legalises Piracy for £1 a Month!

Zascar · 27-02-2009 10:24am #1

The Isle of Man is going to try an audacious plan that would charge its citizens a small, flat fee for each connection in return for granting them legitimate access to music files, wherever they may be found. The plan would also see ISPs become the gateway to value-added music services.

The Manx government has apparently achieved 100 percent broadband penetration on the small island, and piracy exists there as it does everywhere else. "At the end of the day, we're not going to stop piracy," said Berry. "Embrace it… Had the music industry embraced [the original Napster], we’d have a very different medium today."

Link

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/01/isle-of-man-gets-unlimited-music-downloads-with-blanket-fee.ars
http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/02/inside-the-isle-of-mans-1month-unlimited-music-plan.ars

Cabaal · 27-02-2009 11:20am

HJave to say I don't agree that everyone should affectively pay a tax for having a net connection, alot of people have no interest in pirating anything, Many people just want to check e-mail so its unfair to have them paying a "Music/Piracy Tax"

Also who gets this £1 the music industry or the gov?

Zascar · 27-02-2009 11:26am

True, but they use the example of the fact thatwe all pay tax for ammenities such as public swimming pools, yet very few of us actually use it. It's obviously a lot easier to tax everyone than some people selectivly.

Cabaal · 27-02-2009 11:32am

Zascar wrote: »

True, but they use the example of the fact thatwe all pay tax for ammenities such as public swimming pools, yet very few of us actually use it. It's obviously a lot easier to tax everyone than some people selectivly.

Again those taxes go to ther gov and are used to fund many things, I honestly can't see 100% of this tax going to any goverment

Zascar · 27-02-2009 11:34am

Well the Isle of Man is (practically) tax free so I'd guess there would be a greater change fo the funds being distributed to the record companies than Ireland for example

ZeRoY · 27-02-2009 12:03pm

Cabaal wrote: »

HJave to say I don't agree that everyone should affectively pay a tax for having a net connection, alot of people have no interest in pirating anything, Many people just want to check e-mail so its unfair to have them paying a "Music/Piracy Tax"

I dont watch RTE im still paying 160+ euros a year for a TV Licence don't I? £1 a month? Stop the whingeing

Isle of Man legalises Piracy for £1 a Month!

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