The prediction, in brief:

Here is a proposal for a different system for taxing digital copying – one designed to support music rather than cater to vested interests: Make no restrictions on the functioning of digital copying equipment. Use a survey system to measure the extent of copying of each musical piece. Collect funds with a tax on machines and media, as the current law does. Distribute these funds entirely to the people who create music. Adjust each contributor’s share so that it increases more slowly per copy as it gets larger.

Predictor: Stallman, Richard

Prediction, in context:

In a 1993 article for Wired magazine, Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, head of the GNU project and a MacArthur Foundation fellow, writes:”Threatening lawsuits, record companies coerced the major manufacturers into supporting a new law recently passed by Congress that taxes each unit and each tape or recordable disc sold to consumers. The tax funds are handed out to various participants in the music industry. The law also requires manufacturers to cripple hardware so that consumers cannot make a copy of a copy of a pre-recorded piece. The stated purpose of the law is to ‘compensate’ musicians for home copying. But the law diverts 57 percent of the funds to record companies and music publishers, leaving less than half for the people who participate in the creative process. Most of the remaining funds will go to musical superstars and thus do little to encourage or assist musical creativity. Meanwhile, users are denied the full power of digital technology: easier copying and changing of information. Here is a proposal for a different system for taxing digital copying – one designed to support music rather than cater to vested interests: * Make no restrictions on the functioning of digital copying equipment. * Use a survey system to measure the extent of copying of each musical piece. * Collect funds with a tax on machines and media, as the current law does. * Distribute these funds entirely to the people who create music. * Adjust each contributor’s share so that it increases more slowly per copy as it gets larger. This allows the collected funds to be spread more widely to support a larger number of musicians.”

Date of prediction: January 1, 1993

Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues

Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism

Name of publication: Wired

Title, headline, chapter name: Copywrong

Quote Type: Direct quote

Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.03/1.3_stallman.copyright_pr.html

This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney