With the latest reincarnation of what is surely to be a new generation of Internet Legislation I pondered a way to solve the artist's intellectual property (IP) dilemma. For a while now, I've had a big idea which has been driving my motivation to learn to hack and create web servers. At this point of my programming life, I feel that I have a strong grasp of foundational computing knowledge and an apprentice understanding of MVC and noSQL architectures. I'm also well versed in python, though I could definitely stand to learn a thing or two. For the most part, I am a lonely hacker and work with non-profit organizations who have little to no understanding of the Internet and computers. So I have spent most of my spare time for the past five years writing code and experimenting and about year of hacking to put food on my table.

But, I do not yet feel that I can accomplish this project alone, and it is much bigger than me.

I call it the Street Performer License, but that's up for discussion as well. In fact, as I explain it, I hope that some keen HNers can help me understand what flaws I would need to work out. Without further ado, here's how I envision it:

Imagine a website or application marketplace in which a series of tv shows, music albums, and software (including games) are purchased in amounts that the customer decides, and once the product has reached a set amount of revenue it is downloadable for no fee. Collections would still be open, but all costs would be deferred to the artists at that point. For the initial round of funding, a set percentage would go into a collective pool for future projects, a small percentage to the publisher for hosting fees, and cost-of-living expenses (optimally, accounting would be entirely transparent). People would be allowed advance copies of material if they made a certain contribution (say, $5 for an album, $10 for a movie or tv series, and $15 for a game or other software). And although these advances would likely be pirated, there is still enough of a market to undertake even the more expensive projects.

I have been speaking with a lot of local artists (local == Vancouver) and they are quite keen to sign up on something like this. I'm sure that this could further bridge relations between hackers and artists.

I'm actually shaking as I write this, because I really wanted to develop this idea to help out my current non-profit (the Vancouver Community Network, I won't plug further; please feel free to google), but now tonight I've realized how much bigger it is than me.

If you're interested in helping out with this project, I've started a gdoc here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-G7uUazq--HYRCRbXfbDKFJb8GZ3yH55lDWmlcXq2Po/edit

I know that you aren't supposed to start with a group when you have an idea like this, but I also know that I want to see ProtectIP, SOPA, and any other Orrin Hatchesque/Victorian IP models become obsolete, and I could really use your support. Help me with my vision of a world in which artist, programmers, engineers, and scientists can all make a decent living without resorting to harmful IP practices.

Thanks for your time,

~foenix