Dept. of Lessig

I'm still learning about the undefined zone that is licensing and the net, but here's a post arguing why collective licensing for musicians online won't work. I think I'm a little convinced. (Tech Liberation)

I respect the fact that Lessig is at least acknowledging a problem exists and proposing a solution to it, but the collective licensing approach will be anything but “simple” in practice. As I have pointed out here before, collective licensing proposals and efforts almost always become compulsory in practice. They inevitably involve government mandates to determine (1) who pays in, (2) how much they pay in, as well as (3) how much gets paid out and, (4) who gets the money.