[pwalker8]

So, they want the ISP's to press the magic "no pirated ebooks/music/movies/whatever" button? Methinks that the Author's guild wants to have their cake and eat it too.

The basic issue is that since there isn't a copyrights database, it's very hard to determine who is the legitimate copyright holder. They should create a copyrights database and if you aren't listed as the copyrights holder in the database, then you 1) can have any work that you post taken down (ideally, ebook stores would use this to determine who is allowed to put works up for sale) and 2) you can't issue take down notices.

The flip side is if you are listed as the copyright holder, then the work is automatically taken down, no questions asked.

If a work isn't listed in the copyright database, then it's not under copyright. This would solve a whole lot of problems. Database to be paid for with a small fee for the life of the copyright on each copyrighted material.

Obviously this wouldn't solve all problems, but it would provide enough of a framework that the rest of the problems are solvable.

As far as the standard rate thing, isn't this an illegal conspiracy? (yes, the illegal is redundant since a conspiracy is by definition an group of people coming together to do something illegal) Unless the Author's Guild is actually a union which is exempt from many anti-trust laws in the US.