Quick insight into what the Canadian Songwriter’s are proposing.

Well, we blogged a lot of these Canadian ideas about music licensing during POP and Policy and they seem to be making their way into the mainstream debates down south, if only as a foil to the hamfisted madness of current sue-the-music-lover practices. Not usually one to be dubious about utopia (I’m pro-utopia!) I have to say, these dreamy plans that involve un-figured-out-yet methods of mapping every single user’s web habits, collecting money from us all monthly, and distributing it fairly have me biting my lip and raising an eyebrow. Alright, I’m dubious, I’ll admit it, but heck, I’m also willing to be surprised…

(T)he Canadian songwriters’ proposal warrants serious consideration. For a mere 16 cents a day (5$ per month taxed on every internet account) it would give computer users access to every song ever recorded. A lot of questions need to be answered before the plan could be set in motion, including who would collect and distribute the money. That’s a big job, one that wireless carriers and Internet service providers aren’t currently equipped to do, and would fight to avoid.

But the idea has too much promise to quickly dismiss. It restores the notion that music has monetary value and it de-criminalizes the tens of millions of consumers who use the Internet to search for and share music they love. It does not involve bullying or lawsuits — the current strategies of choice in the recording industry to combat file-sharing.

Of course, it would require all the music labels to cooperate and make their vast back catalogs available on the Internet without any sort of copying restrictions. For this reason alone, it’s almost impossible to imagine this proposal ever gaining traction. The labels haven’t exhibited any sort of vision in dealing with the challenges and opportunities presented by the digital revolution; instead they agree only on their contempt of file-sharing.

The Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group that represents the major labels, recently sent another wave of pre-litigation settlement letters to universities nationwide as part of a four-year campaign against file sharing of copyrighted songs. The 407 letters urge the recipients at 18 universities to instantly delete all music files on their hard drives and pay fines of at least $3,000 to avoid a lawsuit for copyright infringement. In addition, the industry has filed more than 20,000 lawsuits against consumers, seeking damages of up to $150,000 per infringing song.

That’s a strategy they didn’t teach in business school: Threats and intimidation as a way to build customer satisfaction. Over in Europe, things are even worse for the music industry. Last November, the French government sanctioned a deal to create an anti-piracy group with powers to shut down Internet access to any civilians caught sharing infringing music or movie sales. A “decisive moment for the future of a civilized Internet,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy called it.

The greatest distribution tool in music history and this is the best the music industry can do: Threats, surveillance, bullying?

The Canadian songwriters have the right idea: Give consumers what they want at a fair price. Isn’t that what the music industry should’ve been striving to do all along?

Greg Kot, Tribune Blogs.