more Of Broadband and Tax Cuts

[David Farber <farber () tmail com>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Einar Stefferud <Steflist () thor nma com>
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Of Broadband and Tax Cuts
Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2003 12:34:15 -0800

Just a bit of humorous speculation about possible results of Barry 
Frankel's suggestion to make music distribution free;-)...\Stef
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Free world wide, or just inside the US?

And what controls will come with it when the US Govt subsidizes all 
aspects of the music industry?  After all, the Govt will be paying for 
all of it with the money they "save" by "not reducing" how much of our 
money they commandeer.

How will the new "Secretary of the Music Department" decide who should 
get paid for creating new music?...  And how will they compensate for 
all the old music, going back to antiquity?

Hey, maybe this will get rid of the graft and chicanery that now exists 
in the Music Industry!  That might be a good thing!

Or, maybe PBS will get to make the choices of what is GOOD and what is 
BAD, like they do now for Public Broadcast TV?

Remember, when you subsidize something, you always get more of IT, 
without limits, whatever IT is?  And, when you tax something, you always 
get less of IT.

Hmmmm, maybe we should tax crime, and stop subsidizing IT with free jail 
room rent
and free food and clothing?

No, I do not wish to be a member of the Music Production Authorization 
Board!
Remember, when the Board authorizes a music composer, it is awarding a 
contract for which taxpayers pay for the results, and thus impose 
GOVERNMENT controls on the quality of the music produced.  Perhaps also 
on the quantity;-(...

So all the decisions will become political, and centrally 
controlled;-)...
Actually, to be fair, it should be an agency of the UN to make it 
global.

And then we can divide to conquer ourselves by fighting over a whole new 
set of racist-like issues.  Maybe we can advance to having 3 or more US 
political parties all dividing and conquering each other's members and 
supporters.  What a marvelous way to create new sources for political 
contributions!

The basic rule for all this is called the "Sorcerer's Apprentice 
Problem"
which comes to the fore when you notice some "unintended 
consequences".
Until you notice them, of course, they surely must not exist as a 
possibility.

Please note!
I am only suggesting that there might be other consequences than are 
proposed below.

The problem is simple to state but hard to use
(which is what makes it such a big problem):

                "After you have used up the first two wishes,
                 how do you use your last wish to get things
                 back to where you started?"

Cheers...


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Barry Frankel <bfrankel () PrincetonCapital com>
> To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
> Subject: Of Broadband and Tax Cuts
> Date: Thu, 09 Jan 2003 11:00:47 -0500
>
> Dave,
>
>
> I was reading about President Bus's plan to stimulate the economy by 
> reducing taxes by $647 billion.  This is a lot of money especially when 
> you compare it to the stimulus that the economy got from the internet 
> boom at a far lower cost from government funding the development of 
> technology.  This led me to wonder if it won't be a better stimulus for 
> the economy if rather than reducing taxes, the government licensed the 
> digital rights to music and video content from the record companies, 
> television networks,  and the movie studios and allowed companies to 
> freely distribute content from web sites.
>
> According to the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2002 (H.R. 
> 5057) Congress estimated that in 2001, the motion picture industry lost 
> $3,000,000,000 in potential worldwide revenue, the music industry lost 
> $4,300,000,000 worldwide.  This is a total of only $7.3 billion dollars 
> and is little more than one percent of the proposed tax cut.  And even 
> if the cost for content licensing were doubled the cost would still be 
> small compared to a $647 billion tax cut.
>
> The impact of free content should have a significant on the economy.  
> PC sales would boom.  Telecom networks would see a significant growth 
> in the demand for broadband access.  VCs would come out of shell shock 
> and begin to invest in start up companies.
>
> What do you and others think about stimulating the economy by making 
> content freely available?
>
> Barry Frankel
> -- Dave
>
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-- Dave

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