On Thursday, June 22, 2006 the Spanish Congress voted to implement a tax on all blank media, including flash memory sticks, blank cd and dvd-rs, even mobile phones and printers. There is no word on how much this new tax will be, only that the revenues will be collected by the government, and will then be given to the “copyright holder.”
Is this an example of what is to come in the United States or other parts of Europe? People have long discussed this concept, known as “compulsory licensing.” Meaning that basically the government assumes people are going to be putting copyrighted material on this blank media, Other ideas in the same vein include licensing fees imposed on DSL or cable customers, again assuming they are going to be making unauthorized copies of copyrighted material.
This takes fair use and completely throws it out the window. God forbid you have taken some home videos and copied them to a blank cd or memory chip. You will be paying into some kind of fund administered by some kind of beaurocrat and overseen by some RIAA/MPAA type trade organization.
Please prevent this from happening in your country.
Here are some links to a spanish blog covering the report:
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_5010.shtml
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_5000.shtml
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WEIRD even printers? I though we pay a fee on blank media here in the US but after a little investigation this is what I found from good ol’ wikipedia:
17 USC 1008 bars copyright infringement action and 17 USC 1003 provides for a royalty of 3% of the initial transfer price. The royalty rate in Section 1004 was established by the Fairness in Music Licensing Act of 1998. This only applies to CDs which are labeled and sold for music use; they do not apply to blank computer CDs even though they can be (and often are) used to record or “burn” music from the computer to CD. A similar royalty applies to stand-alone CD recorders but not to CD burners used with computers. These royalties are probably why stand-alone CD recorders never achieved the same popularity as computer CD burners in the U.S.
Thanks to a precedent established in a 1998 lawsuit involving the Rio PMP300 player MP3 pla yers are deemed “computer peripherals” and are not subject to a royalty of this type in the U.S.
That is bullshit. I will never pay royalties. Blank media has more legitmate use than they are considering. Linux family photos copies of cds I already own vb projects etc etc. This had better not come to the US.
You do pay more for those “mp3″ cds…..but that is just for people who do not know that there is no difference between a “mp3″ cd and a normal cd.
From what I understand we’ve had a similar practice in place for quite some time in Canada. The additional cost per disk/tape/etc. is negligible – no one complains about it. It also gives justification for minor copyright infringements we all commit like taping programs off of TV – we can argue we’ve legitimately paid for that right. ^_– I have no complaints about it. I actually think it’s a pretty good solution to worries about illegal copying. Much more friendly than embedded permissions and locking features in media files.
#4 is quite correct Canada has had a levy on blank media for 15+ years now. This levy is distributed to recording artists etc and NOT recording companies nor any version of the RIAA. It is a great way for a country to help foster artists from that country rather than multinational organizations. This law was also attacked by a so called group of the industry however this group turned out only to be four multinational music corporations while Canadian artists organized against them. At least Spain has the interests of it’s people in mind and not the recording industry or the lawyers they throw at people.
what our brains….? that’s blank media. If I start to whistle a tune or repeat a few lines from a film – do I need to cough up some cash?
What about personal uses of media ie anything where I am the coypright holder photos music office documents etc? Do I then get a refund under this Spanish law?
There are few simmilar ideas in Croatia. For now it’s just an idea but if I understand correctly they want to introduce tax for blank CDs DVDs MP3 palyers hard disks DVD recorders with hard disks etc…. Is there any other country where such a wide range of products is covered with these levies?
I noticed for while that blank cd’s labled MP3 or music has a higher sales price then one that has Data written on it. Im sure they would or could tell the RIAA to f@ck off and make strictly cd’s labled DATA. RIAA gets money from blank cds that are labled music and blank tape cassettes.
next thing you know they will be splitting up the CDs you can have your mp3 CDs or your data CDs just and if you really want u can also buy video CDs its just stupid just like how they are trying to split up the internet