EU says No to copyright tax changes
p2pnet news | P2P: There’s no need for major revisions to a copyright tax on MP3 players and blank CDs, the European Union has decided.
“EU Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevy was forced to abandon his proposal to reform the levy that varies enormously across the 20 EU states that apply it,” says Guardian Unlimited, also pointing out Britain and Ireland have no levy at all.
“The tax at import level is often passed on to consumers and raised 560 million euros ($819.7 million) in 2005,” the story says.
National collecting societies who pass the tax on to authors and artists were jubilant, it goes on, adding:
“GESAC, which represents the national collecting societies, unveiled a report on Thursday which it said rebuffed arguments used by the electronics industry for drastic reform.”
GESAC secretary general Veronique Desbrosses says the report, “debunked two key arguments of the electronics industry, that differences in tax rates among EU states severely distorted the internal market, and that digital rights management does away with the need for the tax,” says Guardian unlimited.
Also See:
Guardian Unlimited – No big change to EU copyright levy needed – report, November 8and, 2007
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November 8th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Pirating is ok, we pay tax for it so if we dont pirate we pay all kinds of shady people for nothing in return.. since we pay the artists unwillingly we have the right to their works imo.
November 8th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
That’s right, tax every possible device because it could potentially store music. What an intelligent concept. With policies like this, why do artists / record companies need to produce content? oh, i forgot, they already produce junk. Nevermind, they still get payed for it. Great incentive!
While we are on the subject; What about other copyright owners? authors, picture artists, software developers? Are they also compensated? Not likely. The music industry is given priority over everything. Could the laws be more prejudiced?