Leader: The music industry's stupidest idea... tax the net

Greed and stupidity are two very unattractive traits.

The music industry's attempt to tax internet service providers for users downloading illegally copied songs is nothing short of stupidity - motivated by greed. It would have more luck winning the lottery than passing this off as a good idea - if for no other reason than it is totally impractical.

Imagine if Royal Mail became liable for all the pirated music sent over its postal system, or for somebody posting some illegally photocopied pages from a textbook.

"Musicians are losing money to copyright," the music industry whines. So according to one industry group, the whole world is supposed to stop what they're doing, shed a tear or two and give those sensitive songwriters special attention because they are the only people to be hit by copyright infringement.

Unlikely.

What were these people thinking as they sat around a table together? Imagine if Royal Mail became liable for all the pirated music sent over its postal system, or for somebody posting some illegally photocopied pages from a textbook.

Stupidity can almost be forgiven, though they really should have tried to understand the technical implications of their idea. But greed is a little harder to let go.

The music industry has been overcharging people for years. It has always had a problem with people copying music, be it by tape, CD or file sharing. Now music media prices have dropped with the help of the internet, those musical fat cats are whinging the food has been snatched from their mouths.

Not that we're saying copyright infringement is a good idea. It's just that the music industry has had its fair share of cake already. And now it wants the entire UK internet community to pander to its needs.

Saying that, the ISPs have come out grumbling with the same response issued every time someone accuses them of being irresponsible about content. 'Not our problem, mate.'

In this single case it actually works for ISPs to give this response as they have been lucky enough to be challenged by an unusually dumb proposal.