Hodejo1 writes "Former MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson offers up this commentary on The Register that basically says that any attempts to build a sanctioned digital music site today is doomed from the outset. "The internet companies I talk to don't mind giving some direct benefit to music companies. What torpedoes that possibility is the big financial requests from labels for "past infringement", plus a hefty fee for future usage. Any company agreeing to these demands is signing their own financial death sentence. The root cause is not the labels — chances are if you were running a label you would make the same demands, since the law permits it. The lack of clarity in the law is the real culprit — and it's the huge potential penalties that create an incentive for the big record labels' law firms to file lawsuits. Without clear laws and rulings from the court about what is permissible, every action touching a copyrighted work is a possible infringement, with a large financial windfall if the copyright owner can persuade a Judge to agree". Bottom line, today's global copyright laws give all the competitive advantages to the outlaws. Of course, if the labels were a bit less aggressive with the huge upfront payments and debilitating restrictions (caustic DRM,etc.) maybe all these "legal" companies would not be going out of business."
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