In the U.S., suggesting that legislation be past to legalize music sharing is likely a ticket to getting laughed out of town. The U.S.'s northern neighbor, Canada, is used to looking at things a bit differently.  Canada often breaks with its neighbor and tradition in terms of social policy and other issues.

Canada is now experiencing an intriguing grassroots movements among its music artists to legalize music downloading.  The Songwriters Association of Canada (SAC), a songwriters guild which features such artists as Joni Mitchell, Jean-Pierre Ferland, David Clayton-Thomas, Marc Hamilton, and Haydaine Neale, just released a proposal that may turn a few heads in the international music community.

The group proposed that the Canadian government legalize file sharing, while enacting a flat fee of $5 per home Internet connection to provide royalties to artists.  The SAC estimates that the legal music market in Canada amounts to about $2.13 million CDN in revenue, while being dwarfed by illegal downloading.  About 22% of Canada's population downloaded music last year according to a research study last year representing about 7.5 million active downloaders.  If the flat fee was imposed, this could increase music revenues to almost $37 million CDN.

While many of the details about how the royalties would be distributed remain to be seen, the SAC's efforts represent a landmark effort by musicians to make their music available to the public for a reasonable rate.  The SAC states that, "Canada has given the world some of the greatest music ever produced. We believe that implementing a fair way of compensating Canada’s music creators for the online sharing of their music will usher in a new Golden Age of creativity."

On its site, an online petition that can be completed by Canadian citizens, which will help bring the issue before Canada's Parliament.

While Canada may be experiencing an artist-driven movement towards legal file sharing, here in the U.S. such ideas are met with a mix of trepidation and enthusiasm.  Some artists like Trent Reznor and Radiohead are strong advocates of working out a more fair system that allows users to distribute music, while providing artists with some compensation.  Other artists like former Kiss member Gene Simmons laugh off such ideas and say that college students who download music should lose their "houses and cars".