New German PC ‘royalties’ levy
p2pnet.net News:- A ‘tax’ that looks a lot like a royalty collection levy is to be imposed on all Fujitsu Siemens computers sold in Germany.
Last year the VG Wort copyright organization filed against Fujitsu Siemens, Germany’s largest PC maker, wanting €30 (US$41) for each new computer sold there.
That demand was turned down but the District Court of Munich has now approved a €12 (about $16.25) copyright levy which VG Wort plans to apply to all PC vendors in the country, says the IDG News Service, going on:
“Germany is one of several European countries that, for decades, has been collecting special copyright levies on the sale of analog copying devices, such as blank audio and video cassettes. The levies are intended to compensate rights holders for lost royalties from private copying of music, images and movies.
“The country is now poised to become the first on the Continent to impose a copyright levy, similar to a royalty collection, on new PCs.”
IDG says Fujitsu Siemens may appeal and wants the German government, “which is currently debating its copyright laws,” to review the role of the country’s rights society in the digital age.
Canada has copyright levies on the sale of blank audio and video cassettes. They’re meant to compensate rights holders for lost royalties from private copying of music, images and movies.
In 2003 the Copyright Board of Canada froze private copying levies on recording devices and at the same time, boosted non-removable memory (such as in Apple’s iPod) by $2 per device for up to one gig of memory, $15 for 1-10 and $25 over 10.
In December, 2004, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that copyright levies on digital music players aren’t legal.
“The court decided the board couldn’t impose a levy on memory in a device such as an iPod, and set aside the board’s tariff in this respect,” a source told p2pnet at the time. “Put another way, once incorporated into a device, a recording medium becomes part of the device.”
The decision would probably lower the price of mp3 players, buy would also, “erode the stream of revenues to musicians at a time of widespread digital pirating,” said a Globe & Mail report, continuing that a debate on whether or not copying music onto mp3 players now violates the Copyright Act immediately followed the decision.
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See:-
tax – German court sets copyright levy on new PCs, IDG News Service, December 24, 2004
copyright levies – Canadian iPod ‘tax’ not legal, p2pnet, December 17, 2004
digital pirating – Ottawa’s MP3 fee quashed, Globe & Mail, December 17, 2004
January 1st, 2005 at 7:53 pm
If they’re going to say “You’re buying a computer and are going to use it to steal”, it should come pre-loaded with spyware free versions of programs (azureus, abc, whatever you want for your torrent, as well as emule etc) for people to use to ’steal’ as it were.
It’s only fair, if you’re paying a tax on the tool, be given the tool to make the tax worthwhile. Also, does this tax leave them “free to steal” as in, they won’t get sued? This is not mentioned.