From Upi.com: SKOPJE, Macedonia, March 12 (UPI) — Based on the recommendation of its patent office and following fierce lobbying by VG Wort, an association of German composers, authors and publishers, Germany is poised to enforce a 3-year-old law and impose a copyright levy of $13 plus 16 percent in value added tax per new computer sold in the country.
The money will be used to reimburse copyright holders — artists, performers, recording companies, publishers and movie studios — for unauthorized copying thought to weigh adversely on sales.
This is the non-binding outcome of a one-year mediation effort by the patent office between VG Wort, Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Germany’s largest computer manufacturer and other makers.
VG Wort initially sought a levy of $33 per unit sold. But Fujitsu and the German Association for Information Technology, Telecommunications and New Media, known as Bitkom — including Microsoft, IBM, Alcatel, Nokia, Siemens and 1,300 other member firms — intend to challenge even the more modest fee in court.
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