p2pnet - rss feed: EU music licensing
p2p news / p2pnet:- The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA) and Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) like European commissioner for internal market and services Charlie McCreevy’s ideas to eliminate territorial restrictions and customer allocation provisions in music licensing contracts.
The three organizations, “advocate for a shift from copyright levies to encourage industry-driven, voluntary initiatives as copy protection technologies become available” they say in a joint statement.
It came as the global technology industry convened in Brussels for the 2005 Strategic Global Industry Roundtable on Levies and Digital Rights Managemen, organized by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and European-American Business Council (EABC)
“The CEA, EICTA, and JEITA statement specifically calls for a freeze on the further extension of levies, as well as a levy phase-out,” they say. “With regard to those countries that currently use the copyright levy system, the three organizations suggested the following principles:
1 - There should be a baseline established with regard to a rational and justifiable fee structure and a limited universe of products on which the levy may be applied;
2 - The levies-setting process must be modernized to become more open and transparent so that stakeholders (content owners, equipment manufacturers and consumers) are involved in, and informed about, the process of how levies are calculated; and
3 - Collecting societies must be more open and transparent, publishing accounts that give a true and fair view of their activities.
“If indiscriminate and nontransparent fees continue to be set by collecting societies, digital devices will soon be so heavily taxed that the consumer will be forced to pay unfair and inflated prices,” ss CEA president and ceo Gary Shapiro.
“Likewise, the manufacturer will have no incentive to develop digital rights management technologies.”
Who needs DRM?
The Register’s Lucy Sherriff says Francisco Mingorance, director of public policy, Europe for the BSA, argues that private copy levies mean “consumers are paying multiple times for the rights to use their music”.
DRM-protected content is increasingly popular and “Mingorance positions the BSA as the consumer’s champion”. Levies were, “designed to compensate for unpoliceable private copying,” she has him saying, “but with DRMs the rationale for levies disappears. Lawmakers cannot ignore that private copy levies are increasingly obsolete in the digital age.”
The BSA says German trade association Bitkom estimates that the average consumer pays out as much as €150 (about $180) “in private copy levies when he or she kits out a typical home office with a PC, scanner, printer and CD or DVD burner,” says The Register.
“That same customer then pays again for copy-protected music, the BSA says, and this is not fair. But surely the BSA has not thought this one through. If Europeans are all paying for unpoliceable private copying already, why do we need DRM?”
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See:-
eliminate territorial restrictions - New EU online music rights, October 12, 2004
joint statement - Rockstar GTA trilogy, movie, October 13, 2005
The Register - BSA wants ‘private copy levies’ scrapped, October 13, 2005
October 14th, 2005 at 4:11 pm
yes but with private copy levies they must apply for a rateincrease, with DRM they can screw you as much as they want.
October 14th, 2005 at 6:16 pm
Copy-protections & DRM should be illegal, after all the french laws says you’re entitle to make copies for your private use (laws are so much fuzzy, you can fuck the lot of such old laws easily ;)) which means you can copy your friends CDs/DVDs/games/softwares if you only use it for your selfish self
October 15th, 2005 at 8:42 am
Bingo! That’s exactly what it’s all about. Just wait til it hits games.
“Level Cleared…. You must now pay $10 to advance to the next level. Saving at the end of the level costs $5, saving inside the level costs $10 per save game. Loading will cost you $5 each time. Would you like to pay real money for a new weapon and some more ammo now?”