One way to outwit RIAA

I've come to expect audacious, grandiose pronouncements from the keyboard of Robert X. Cringely. Last week, he pitched a breathtaking proposal for creating a music-downloading service that (a) is probably legal, (b) has a sound business model, and (c) really sticks it to Big Music.

The gist of his idea is to create a public company -- call it "Snapster" -- that buys a huge library of CD's and sells inexpensive downloads to shareholders, who legally own part of every CD, thus making the business legal under the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act.

You really need to read Cringely's detailed explanation, especially the financial projections that have Snapster matching the market capitalization of all the major record labels combined in just one year.

Alas, Cringely doesn't go into what this would mean for artists' royalties -- which theoretically dwindle to nothing since Snapster doesn't actually sell any new recordings.