The world is flummoxed by how to maintain law and order with respect to copyrights, when there's so much free (illegal) downloading of music and stuff on the internet. I myself have been caught in the moral crisis. On the one hand, I empathize with the artists who rely on the sale of their recordings for their livelihood, and I respect (though after further study, I don't always agree with) the copyright laws of the land. On the other hand, as one of my classmates put it, "It's like you're stealing from the devil's brother," and I do believe that most of what people download they wouldn't pay for, so the artist doesn't lose much in sales, but gains in exposure.

I've studied this problem in school, and now I'm studying it for work. Many people have put forth various positions, from free downloads--copyright laws be danged!-- to strict liability for anyone involved with copyright infringement--even the passive internet service providers-- to a call for taxes on things like blank CDs that make downloading more attractive, in order to raise revenue to pay off the artists.

Well, today I had my own idea. In the past, when people asked me, I would say that I don't know what needs to be done, but it seems that the system needs to change. The new wine of peer-to-peer technology can't be put in the old bottles of traditional copyright law. But what I think should be done is just putting the wine into different bottles. The record industry needs to realize that even 99 cents is too much for some people to pay for the marginal-value song. The Internet offers many services for free (see email and the fabulous-sounding new g-mail), and music downloading should be free too. Support it with advertising, just like email, just like streaming audio stations, just like TV. It's not that big of a logical leap to say that the artists should get paid with the advertising revenue generated by the eyeballs or ears that their work draws, instead of by the eyeball- or ear-owners themselves. If I could go to EMI.com and download songs for free, you bet I'd tolerate some banner ads. Heck, I'd probably even tolerate annoying technology that would require me to use a certain player software that runs banner ads while I'm listening.

That way, the artists get their money, the record labels don't have to sue their customers, P2P technology gets to flourish, illegal downloading becomes irrelevant because it'll get out-competed by legitimate uses, and most of all, consumers get free music. Just like we get free email and free TV.