pretty straightforward really...

max(cd.price) * max(downloaders.estimated) * max(downloaders.whowouldpurchaseCD.estimated)

I think they're assuming 100% efficiency between the people who download vs. the people who would buy if downloading were not available, taking the most astronomical estimate of the number of people who download, and taking the largest possible price of the CD in any market (that would probably be Japan) and coming up with a product their lobbyists can sell to their property in Washington.

What, me cynical? Perish the thought!

Actually, the situation up here is far more quiet. We've been paying surcharges on all kinds of digital media based on capacity for years (including things like tape, HDs, and CDRs) based on the idea that some copyright material would end up on it. Of course, SOCAN has not been very good at redistributing the earnings realised to the artists in question (seems it has more value to them piling up in the bank for some strange reason)... but the rank incompetence of the royalty organisation is not a reason to permit prosecuting downloaders, esp. since SOCAN is not a government-run or -owned organisation; it is owned by the publishers and music industry.

They don't want to try to prosecute up here, because of course we've all been paying for this for years, and if they did, they might have to answer some hard questions as to why they think it's OK to massively violate privacy rights in pursuit of money they've already earned.

--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton                            jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca]                   [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Kingston Ontario Canada               [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------