“Musician Donations Anonymous “, A modest proposal:

I propose a website, “Musician Donations Anonymous”, that works as follows: Musicians who write and perform songs will register their recordings at the site. People who enjoy bootleg copies of this music will use the site to make voluntary micro-donations to the artists. I’m thinking maybe $.05 or $0.10 per song. Or, for those who have a legal copy and just want to encourage the musicians, say, $.02.
My proposal would be a good test of the much proclaimed good intentions of those who listen to bootleg music. It would also be quite a test of micropayments. And, by bypassing the current owners of the music (usually NOT the artists these days), it should drive the RIAA into a frenzy.

This proposal was inspired by Marybeth Peters’ Bombshell proposal before congress to revamp music licensing in order to enable big music companies to sell singles cheaply enough to compete with the music pirates; and also by commentaries on her proposal by Ari F. at Grafodexia and Ernie Miller at Corante.
Marybeth Peters is the Register of Copyrights. She proposes to fix injustice from within the system. I propose to correct it from without.