> Stallman's proposal is a variation on current reality. As I understand it,
> DAT blank tapes are taxed and the proceeds are distributed by some formula
> used by the ASCAP music association...
The current system (I think the law that enshrines it is called the Digital Millenium Copyright Act) differs from Stallman's proposal in two significant ways: (1) Over half the funds collected by the tax go to record companies and music publishers, instead of everything going directly to the artists. (2) DAT machines are designed so that they cannot make a copy of a copy of a prerecorded tape.
The Marxist analysis is left as an exercise for the reader.
-- perl -le"for(@w=(q[dm='r 0rJaa,u0cksthe';dc=967150;dz=~s/d/substrdm,\ (di+=dc%2?4:1)%=16,1ordi-2?'no':'Perl h'/e whiledc>>=1;printdz]))\ {s/d/chr(36)/eg;eval;}#In Windows type this all on 1 line w/o '\'s" == seth gordon == sgordon at kenan.com == standard disclaimer == == documentation group, kenan systems corp., cambridge, ma ==