[pp.int.general] cultural flatrate: PP position?

[Reinier Bakels]

>> Just a question: Have you been elected? When do you know? What are the
>> predictions?
>
> Nope. We might get one percent of the votes - wich is a pretty good
> result for a party, that gets nearly no media attention.
>
> Christian
> ____________________________________________________
I was very suprised by this message, and actually disdappoited, but now I 
understand that you are a different Christian than the Christian that has 
been elected in the EP. Now I also understand your opinion on flatrates - 
which seems hardly a PP position, but a capitulation to the pressure of 
record companies, and an encouragement for rights owners to pursue other 
"rent seeking" strategies. Flatrates basically accept the (imho) totally 
outdated copyright system and try to organise the administration. 
Apparently, flatrates simplify the collection - but there is virtually no 
way to establish a just tariff. Redistributing the collected money is a 
nightmare. It is utterly expensive (high "transaction cost"). In NL, the 
redistribution of levy (Leervergüung) money became a nightmare and is now 
under close parliament scrutiny. At some point in time it was even decided 
to give money back to the producers of blank CDs etc. - but they are not 
very well organised, actually an association of manufacturers had broken up.
reinier