The French government will buy your next tune

With Hadopi already unraveling, beaten down by ISPs refusing to take part and the sheer impossibility of the numbers, the unpopular French government have come up with a new idea to "defeat" "piracy" in some way:

Under the scheme, French residents who purchase a card - the Carte musique - to download music from subscription-based website platforms, will only pay half the cost of a €50 ($70) credit included in the card, with the French government paying the rest.

It must delight the workers currently striking because Sarkozy has told them that there's no money for pensions that there is, apparently, cash to pop into the coffers of EMI and Universal.

They're expecting to sell a million of the cards - that's €25million a year effectively being handed to the record labels. The hope is that it'll get young people used to the idea of paying for music - as if that's what the problem has been for the last few years.

It's not clear why someone who doesn't currently pay for music would suddenly be interested in doing so because they government's paying half; the most likely effect is that people who do currently buy downloads or subscribe will chuckle with delight that they're only forking out half as much.

Let's hope they don't get used to the idea that half their music collection should be free. That'd be the last thing they want to happen.