Who should pay for file sharing?
At a recent conference on file sharing and DRM, Kevin Bermeister, chief executive of a company that distributes content via peer-to-peer (P2P) applications such as Kazaa, and Steve Johnston, who oversees DRM for the UK's Association of Independent Music, suggested that ISPs, hardware manufacturers and manufacturers of blank media should help foot the bill to recoup the losses that artists and labels have suffered due to illegal file sharing.

Yeah, you read that right. He is admitting that file sharing is costing artists and labels money; however, he wants someone other than the file sharing companies to pay for it. Brilliant!

Here is an excerpt from the article where they rationalize this approach:
"The ISPs are in the background all the time," said Steve Johnston, who's in charge of digital rights management for the UK's Association of Independent Music.

"Their entire businesses are being driven by that traffic. People are getting broadband connections to get hold of all that free music and not any of that money has gone back to rights holders and creators."

But Mr Bermeister added: "I don't think you can really target the ISPs specifically here. The Internet is a new market and a new medium.

"There are CD-ROM manufacturers, there are computer manufacturers, there are MP3 players like iPod for example who all derive a benefit, including the ISPs, from the activities of access to content on demand."