In a surprise move today, recording industry executives unveiled yet another strategy to try to wring every possible penny out of the music-listening public. Industry lobbyists are hard at work seeking Congressional approval for a plan which would require that the price of all musical instruments sold in the U.S. carry a "royalties surcharge" of 20% of the selling price. If the plan is approved, the money raised will be divided among recording companies, artists and copyright owners.
By way of explanation,recording industry executive Elmo Snide, offered these comments:
"Ya see, every time someone buys a CD, we get our cut. Every time a song gets played on the radio, we get our cut. Every time a song gets played in live public performance, we get our cut. But these damned people playing copyrighted music in their own homes on these guitars and such are not contributing one red cent to our coffers! Most of them spend way more time playing music than listening to our recordings, and it's just not fair! They may not know it, but they're stealing from us! How in the hell am I supposed to make my BMW payment? We don't feel we're being unreasonable. We only want our fair share".