I hadn't heard of this previously, but according to this article the P2P industry is trying to put forth a plan to initiate some sort of bonus tax on computer sales that would be used to compensate the RIAA for lost CD sales in exchange for the right to freely exchange songs protected by copyright.

Sounds like it has a snowball's chance in hell. The RIAA will tell them to shove it up their ass and the people would scream bloody murder if they had to pay a bonus tax on all computer sales just so some small percentage of users could trade music illegally.

FWIW- the RIAA is already compensated for the sale of blank CD's. They bitched when CDR drives became popular and wanted to ban the technology- knowing it would be used to copy CD's (even before the advent of P2P and MP3 downloads). Some congressman recently threw that back in their face during a hearing about further legislation. He basically said- "quit whining about lost CD sales. We already compensate you for that from the last time you whined."