For the first half of the twentieth century, commercial radio in the US was essentially illegal, and stations were subjected to the same kind of copyright lawsuits that P2P users are experiencing today. It was only after songwriters banded together to form The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) that radio stations went legit. In return for a fee the radio stations gained the right to play whatever music they liked.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has an idea called Voluntary Collective Licensing which would apply a similar logic to digital music. The idea is that the music industry forms several “collecting societies” which offer file-sharing music fans the opportunity to “get legit” in exchange for a reasonable regular payment (something like $5 - $10 a month). The money collected would be divided among rights-holders based on the popularity of their music.

I think this is a good idea. It differs from a subscription model in that it allows users to choose the service that they want to use, and it also allows for user generated music libraries such as the ill-fated Oink to operate legally. The license fee could easily be rolled into consumer products such as broadband internet or mobile data packages (unlimited digital music sharing for an extra £5 a month!), and P2P users already do a much better job of publishing, cataloguing and documenting music than the music industry themselves.

You can read the full article over at Electronic Frontier Foundation where they have neatly set out their case and attempted to provide answers to many of the inevitable questions that arise.