Internet digitization and peer2peer file sharing are the main culprits in the huge loss of sales for the photography industry, recording companies and other multimedia industries. If those industries would have stood together as "multimedia" when the Internet was young they could have lobbied to get Congress to put a statutory rate on ALL multimedia downloads from the Internet. The collective would have then worked out amongst themselves how to share the pie. Congress would have loved to have such a simple growth providing solution for so many all at once. Instead we have seen fragmented and complicated attempts to amend existing laws to try and keep up with the many issues technology has brought about. Congress is getting inundated with bill proposals from a variety of concerned special interest groups threatened by tech innovations.
Data infrastructures, data applications and data products are the new frontier. Now is the time to establish a statutory rate in this measurable new space that will provide a new revenue stream for the creative community that has tremendous growth potential. The players would first have to see themselves as one, "multimedia players". Now they are ready to go to Congress to get that statutory rate on ALL multimedia transacted peer2peer, mobile2mobile, consumer2consumer. Simplifying Congress's job. After all, why should the wireless industry profit from the sending and receiving of multimedia they do NOT control without giving copyright owners a fair share of the pie? datarevenue.org has details.
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