The music companies' new idea is to try to enforce a music tax:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/03/27/the-music-industrys-new-extortion-scheme/

  One thing I don't understand is why the music industry is so privileged
over other industries? This is not so only in the US, it's so also in many
other countries, including most western European countries, including
Finland. For example here the music industry is allowed to collect taxes on
each empty cassette, CD-R and other recordable media, as well as collecting
taxes from bars, restaurants and almost anyone. What is most puzzling is
that they are legally allowed to collect taxes from music they have
absolutely no rights to. All this is completely legal and government
sanctioned.

  My question is why. Why is the music industry specifically so privileged?

  Let's compare it to another very similar industry: The software industry.
Both music and software are both intangible intellectual property. The exact
same copyright laws protect both music and software. They are by all
practical means almost identical things from a legal point of view.

  However, for some reason, the music industry gets privileges the software
industry doesn't. In Finland, for example, there are no less than three (!)
entities created solely to protect music IP and to tax people (often even
if those people do not use music for anything at all). There's no such
thing for the software industry. There's nobody who would protect the
rights of software writers (other than basic legal protection which also
the music industry has).
  Recordable media gets taxed for potential music piracy. This money goes
to the music industry. Recordable media does not get taxed for potential
software piracy, and the software industry doesn't get a dime from this.
  The authors of the music IP get paid part of these taxes for doing
absolutely nothing, software authors don't get any such free payments.

  What is more aggravating is that the music industry gets all these
government-sanctioned privileges even though music is basically useless.
It has no real use. The same thing cannot be said about software: A large
part of software is actually useful, as useful as most physical tools and
devices you can buy in the shop. They help the overall industry to run and
produce.
  One would think that software needs more protection than music because
software is actually used to run the industry. But no, it's the other
way around: Software only gets the basic legal protection as any other IP,
but music gets all these government-sanctioned privileges. And why? I have
no idea.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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