The fracas over file sharing has prompted many proposals, but no grand solution. This semester, in a freshman seminar called Stealing in Music City, U.S.A., students at Vanderbilt University sketched out their own model of music distribution.
Lawyers, recording-industry executives, songwriters, and performers spoke to the students, and education became a critical component of their new music-world order. One student said that federal legislation — a la No Child Left Behind — should require copyright law to be taught in public schools.
The government should be more involved over all, the students decided (a video of their hourlong final presentation is on YouTube). Their proposals included federal regulation of digital-rights management, as well as two options for peer-to-peer networks: Either the government would run a neutral, nonprofit network, or network owners would be required by law to register and police their own users.
The students also pitched subscription services. One proposal called for a collective licensing arrangement between the Recording Industry Association of America and peer-to-peer networks, like the one now in place for radio broadcasts. (A similar proposal from the Warner Music Group for “voluntary blanket licensing” was mostly met with jeers by readers of Wired Campus.)
Vanderbilt offered the course for the first time this year, with two instructors from the university’s music library: Holling J. Smith-Borne, its director; and Sara J.B. Manus, education and outreach librarian. Are there similar courses at other institutions? Or have any students on your campus come up with creative solutions to music piracy? —Sara Lipka
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