I entirely agree that the "all free all the time" model can't and will not work. What I rail against here most of the time are the foolish methods deployed by the RIAA and their government toadies to enforce the unenforceable. And, as you mention, there are legitimate consumer issues about price and flexibility. I believe the industry can compete with free with reasonable pricing, excellent service and ease of use, education, etc.

But I also know that an entire generation has now come to music as an entitlement, and the only way to really solve the issue is probably some kind of blanket Internet license fee.

As the wise Jim Griffin writes: "The world never has and will not long tolerate purely voluntary payment for art, knowledge and creativity. Copyright is our expression of purpose in this regard. Tougher and more draconian laws will be the result of a failure to address the issue in some manner, and purely voluntary isn't on the list during our lifetimes. Our choice: Voluntary blanket agreements or imposition by government? I'm for the former, but read Steven Cherry closely and you will see that the latter has been our past and will continue to be the preferred policy absent a cogent alternative."

So the government is going to have to step in - when will the industry stop fighting this?

An internet license? Hmmm....I wonder if in the future we'll see "internet detector vans" and portable internet detectors (there is an annual TV license fee in the UK, and it is illegal to watch TV w/o paying the license fee, and to make sure unlicensed people are not watching TV over there, the TVLA [TV Licensing Authority] has TV detector vans going up and down the roads to see if unlicensed people are watching TV, and in suspected cases, the TVLA enters the offender's home and uses a portable TV detector to see if the TV has been recently used).

They won't need to worry about individual users - this would work at the ISP level. You can't get on the Internet without an ISP.

So in other words, the ISPs will have to raise their prices. I think that would suck ass. A $5/month tax would be my limit...anything higer would piss me off (and since this is the U.S. gubmint, they would probably institute a $10/month internet tax plus and annual $100 internet license fee).

Hey wait a minute...what if your only internet access is going to places that have hotspots (provided you have a wireless notebook PC) which do not charge you for wireless access? That has to be taxed someway...either the place of business starting up an hourly usage fee or annual internet license fees. So it won't be up to the ISPs...it will be up to the government. Chances are that when there is an annual internet license fee, mere ownership of a computer requires payment of the internet license fee (with the penalty being either confiscation of your computer, a fine, prison, two of these, or all three).