Would You Pay an Artists Tax?
An interesting article in the NYT today…talking about various efforts by hardware/service vendors to pass along the cost of rights licensing via the cost of the hardware or services. The author points to the idea of being unable to put the pirate genie back in the bottle…and so suggests that by trying to cloak the purchase of the rights to steal…this might prove to be a solution for rights holders.
Personally, I think while interesting…the idea needs a change of venue…and should be asked of societies at large…and their citizenry. I would be willing to pay an art tax…say $2-4 a paycheck…or $60 a year…into a fund that provided money to artists to support their work…if we can’t get the governments to fund the arts…let’s find a way to cut out the middle man and fund them ourselves.
