Choruss’ Bait-and-Switch Music Tax Plan
By Morelli
In December, we told you about Warner Music backing the organization Choruss, which planned to “tax” universities for music file-sharing. If universities paid for music, then it follows that students would be able to share music without liability, which is turning out to be a false assumption.
New revelations indicate that such a deal would not only give the record labels large quantities of money, but also that they wouldn’t actually reduce any of their efforts to sue file sharing systems or students.
The plan is basically a “bait-and-switch” program, designed to make universities pay money, make people believe that it’s legal to file share, and still pursue lawsuits with file sharing programs and sites. Users, despite paying to not get sued, would still be liable for infringement for sharing music of the other rights holders, such as songwriters and music publishers not supported by Choruss.
Sure, the RIAA has been cutting back on lawsuits, but it’s still supporting “3 strikes” policies that will cut users off from the internet, even if they’ve paid Choruss. Jim Griffin, the man hired by Warner and behind the concept, also made it clear in his keynote speech at Digital Media Wire’s Digital Music Forum East that the RIAA won’t stop trying to shut down file sharing systems like The Pirate Bay or Limewire.
It seems like the “non-profit” organization aims to fool the public into thinking that file sharing is now legal, while making enormous sums of cash. What appeared to be merely outrageous in December, could be shaping up to be one of the most oppressive music industry proposals to date.
Is Choruss being honest about the proposal? Are there secondary intentions in play?
