One of the key flaws in past calls by music industry figures for an ‘ISP tax’ has been this: if music gets a slice of broadband internet subscriptions, why not also films, books, games or any other media/entertainment industry concerned at digital cents replacing analogue dollars? Like newspapers. The Guardian‘s respected investigative journalist David Leigh has made a proposal for a £2 levy on UK broadband providers, “in proportion to their UK online readership”. Leigh thinks this would “solve the financial problems of quality newspapers, whose readers are not disappearing, but simply migrating online”. Critics have already pointed out that while The Guardian is still losing lots of money as a business, rivals like the Telegraph Group, News Corp and MailOnline are profitable. We’ll merely point out the political implausibility of one industry securing this kind of levy while others don’t, and the financial impossibility of all of them getting it.
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Tools: Kaiber
In the year or so since its launch, AI startup Kaiber has been making waves,…