Comments? This is clearly not all that new, but I've never seen it in a crypto context from anyone but me.
The first somewhat serious treatment of this I saw was Hughes's DEFCON IV presentation entitled, I believe, "Universal Piracy System." The first part proposed an Eternity-like system to anonymously publish information which was compatible with most Web index engines. In the second part, Eric predicted that because of the Net's economics and anonymous mailing and publication potential copyrights were on their way out. He acknowledged that some workable method of artist compensation was still needed and proposed the movie industry as a possible model. In this scenario a multi-level money collection and product distribution scheme would be supported by artist reputation and completion bonds. --Steve (Esther Dyson is a supporter of alternative publication economics, and I've heard Eric's approach.)