Yeah..that'll work...until the next wave of technology comes out that makes file-swapping even more anonymous. When the RIAA quits blaming everyone but themselves for poor records sales, they may have a chance at turning things around. But not until then.

Ack, phipth, we already have taxes on CDRs here in Canada, and nothing has gone to musicans (who, almost always do not own their copyrights).

Maybe if the majors made their music available for download at a fair price and with decent service, then they could save their bacon. It is a classic case of a black market, which would disappear if it was made legitimate. But then they would have to compete in an open market, and the RIAA just doesn't have clue one about anything which doesn't involve lobbying, payola and theft.

Oh, HELL no: Weiss said the recording industry should lobby for special taxes on CD burners and Internet access as a way to recoup losses incurred from file sharing, an idea that Grokster's Rosso also supports.

I'ma second Mr. Carruthers here. There are LOTS of things they could do, but they would require creative thinking and entrepreneurship- you know, all that stuff you're supposed to do in a free market economy.

So essentially Weiss is asking the government to tax consumers (who'll pay in higher prices) so that he can continue to make money off illegal file trading. What a sleazeball.

Interesting to see the condemnation from every political direction - that's a good sign. If you do not want onerous governmental-sanctioned incursions into your digital privacy, if you want the free flow of information including files containing copyrighted information, if you want the artists to get paid (will have to whole new system to get it to the artists and songwriters rather than the labels), then this is ultimately the only way.