The Rights Office Model Of Intellectual Property

Nicholas Bentley replied to my post How Digital Production & Distribution Are Making Things Worse For Musicians, Not Better with a link to his very interesting article for INDICARE on the Rights Office distribution model. I feel better about watermarking-oriented solutions than most others I've seen, given that it seems feasible to track most or all uses of content and assign compensation fairly and cleanly. The major obstacle, and it's a big one, seems to be getting the existing industry to give up its current control over pricing & collection, even if it might lead to a bigger business for everyone. Groups of people don't always act in their own best interest - e.g. it seems clear that the world would be better off with more democracy (including a little more here in the USA, please!), but...