Private copying levy
Encyclopedia
A private copying levy (also known as blank media tax or levy) is a government
-mandated scheme in which a special tax
or levy
(additional to any general sales tax
) is charged on purchases of recordable media. Such taxes are in place in various countries and the income is typically allocated to the developers of "content". (A distinction is sometimes made between "tax" and "levy" based on the recipient of the accumulated funds; taxes are received by a government, while levies are received by a private body, such as a copyright collective
.)
Levy system may operate in principle as a system of collectivisation, partially replacing a property
approach of sale of individual units.
Levies are often considered a compensation for illegal file sharing
. This is debatable however: levies could be seen as not being an advance for fines, but rather, only intended to compensate for copies in the private sphere that are legally allowed in many jurisdictions. A notable exception in Europe is the UK, that does not allow private copies. But generally legislators allow private copies for two reasons: firstly, because otherwise the enforcement would be unfeasible for private reasons, and secondly because the administrative burden would be disproportional.
If one buys a CD, and makes a copy on a MP3 player to listen to it when outdoors, should the author be compensated once more for this copy? According to age-old copyright principles the answer is affirmative: any copy represents a "multiplication" in the sense of copyright law. Those principles date from an era when copying required expensive, professional equipment. Should the old legal rule be maintained now that copying technology is pervasive? Some people find it hard to believe that payments are due for private copies of legally obtained material. Yet, that is the basis for private copying levies.
s in music shops or amount of air-play on radio
or the like. This ignores other distribution channels such as the Internet
, and it disproportionally benefits popular artists and publishers of the related products. Fairer methods would arguably involve extensive sampling
of purchasers to determine actual recording behaviour, or alternatively paying all musicians at a simple flat-rate (the preferred method will depend on one's political views).
While the prime purpose of levy systems is to compensate authors, some part of the collected money is also used for general cultural funding purposes. In Germany this is even required by law. It acknowledges the purpose of cultural diversity - which is not necessarily identical to free market effects. This funding is usually executed by the same entities (collecting societies) that distribute the levy money to individual authors. One may question however whether these entities are properly qualified to make culture policy.
Levy systems assume that all authors want to exploit their work for money. However this is not always true, especially on the internet. Many authors do not write to entertain, but to inform readers, listeners and viewers. Often their purpose is to reach the widest possible audience rather than make the maximum profit from the copyrighted work by itself. The discrepancy between reality and the assumption underlying a levy system is growing as "web 2.0" matures, with pervasive user-supplied content, from Wikipedia to YouTube.
A further problem is to find a proper tariff base for levies. Conceivably the levy may be a percentage of storage media sales price (e.g. 3% in the US). The implication of such a scheme is however that the author gets ever less as technology proceeds and becomes less expensive. But a price based on units of information (bits, or megabits) is not fair either, as for instance a DVD can be used to store a film, a computer game, a large amount of documents, or measurement data. The cost of producing a certain amount of bits widely varies by type of information. Measurement data is even not copyrighted at all. Yet in today's world of converging technology, storage media can be used for a wide range of purposes.
An implementation question that arises is whether the tax applies to any type of copyrighted work or is restricted to a limited field such as music
. If it is restricted then the issue arises of how to collect the tax on media which can also be used for other purposes. The options include:
Contrary Fairness arguments
law, by permitting the recording of copyrighted works on media for which the tax has been paid. However, there is little evidence to support this theory. On the contrary, lobbyists representing publishers and copyright holders have increased pressures to implement more restrictive laws, even on countries that have implemented private copying levy. In 2007, it was reported that International Intellectual Property Alliance put 23 of the world's 30 most populous countries into Priority Watch List, even though the United States, which was not in the list, has laws that are more liberal than the laws from the countries within the list.
Even when restricting levy system to devices that primarily play music, this itself creates loopholes that prevents collecting levies from cellphones, PDAs, and other all-in-one portable electronic devices. As a result, copyright holders will have to rely on even more laws to collect levy, and to increase rates of already levied product to recover perceived losses, which run against the political trends toward eliminating levy systems.
.
in 1997, by the addition of Part VIII, "Private Copying", to the Canadian Copyright Act. The power to set rates and to set the distribution allocation is vested in the Copyright Board of Canada
. The Copyright Board has handed the task of collecting and distributing the funds to the Canadian Private Copying Collective
, which is a non-profit private organization.
In Canada:
Canada's current private copying levies are as follows: $0.24 per unit for Audio Cassette tape (40min or longer), and $0.29 per unit for CD-R, CD-RW, CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio and MiniDisc.
s):
There is no levy fee on mobile phones, computers, memory cards, game consoles, USB flash drive
s and 8 cm (3 in) CDs/DVDs. VAT
of 9% is added to the levies.
of 1992, says that non-commercial copying by consumers of digital and analog musical recordings is not copyright infringement. Non-commercial includes such things as resale not in the course of business, perhaps of normal use working copies which are no longer wanted. It is unlikely to include resale of copies in bulk; Napster
tried to use the Section 1008 defense but was rejected because it was a business.
From House Report No. 102-873(I), September 17, 1992: "In the case of home taping, the [Section 1008] exemption protects all noncommercial copying by consumers of digital and analog musical recordings" .
From House Report No. 102-780(I), August 4, 1992: "In short, the reported legislation [Section 1008] would clearly establish that consumers cannot be sued for making analog or digital audio copies for private noncommercial use".
The United States music industry administers the Audio Home Recording Act
and foreign hometaping royalties for artists on US sound recordings as well as US record labels. These royalties are administered by The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies
for featured artists and copyright owners, ASCAP/BMI
/SESAC
for writers, Harry Fox Agency
for publishers, and The AFM/AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distributoin Fund (Joint venture of AFM
and AFTRA ) for non-featured artists. All societies also collect foreign remuneration for their respective funds.
Thanks to a precedent established in a 1998 lawsuit involving the Rio PMP300
player, most MP3 players are deemed "computer peripherals" and are not subject to a royalty of this type in the U.S.
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
-mandated scheme in which a special tax
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
or levy
Tax
To tax is to impose a financial charge or other levy upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many subnational entities...
(additional to any general sales tax
Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax, usually paid by the consumer at the point of purchase, itemized separately from the base price, for certain goods and services. The tax amount is usually calculated by applying a percentage rate to the taxable price of a sale....
) is charged on purchases of recordable media. Such taxes are in place in various countries and the income is typically allocated to the developers of "content". (A distinction is sometimes made between "tax" and "levy" based on the recipient of the accumulated funds; taxes are received by a government, while levies are received by a private body, such as a copyright collective
Copyright collective
A copyright collective is a body created by copyright law or private agreement which engages in collective rights management...
.)
Levy system may operate in principle as a system of collectivisation, partially replacing a property
Property
Property is any physical or intangible entity that is owned by a person or jointly by a group of people or a legal entity like a corporation...
approach of sale of individual units.
History
Such levies were first introduced in the USA in response to lobbying from the recording industry with the advent of the Audio cassette. Legislators were persuaded at the time that cassette recorders would decimate sales of records as friend after friend would then make copies of only one purchased album. This never happened and levies today are assessed on compact discs a form of media that did not exist when levies were first conceived with the bulk of unrecorded compact discs actually being used in the computing industry yet are still "taxed" to provide a revenue stream to the recording industry.Levies are often considered a compensation for illegal file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
. This is debatable however: levies could be seen as not being an advance for fines, but rather, only intended to compensate for copies in the private sphere that are legally allowed in many jurisdictions. A notable exception in Europe is the UK, that does not allow private copies. But generally legislators allow private copies for two reasons: firstly, because otherwise the enforcement would be unfeasible for private reasons, and secondly because the administrative burden would be disproportional.
If one buys a CD, and makes a copy on a MP3 player to listen to it when outdoors, should the author be compensated once more for this copy? According to age-old copyright principles the answer is affirmative: any copy represents a "multiplication" in the sense of copyright law. Those principles date from an era when copying required expensive, professional equipment. Should the old legal rule be maintained now that copying technology is pervasive? Some people find it hard to believe that payments are due for private copies of legally obtained material. Yet, that is the basis for private copying levies.
Questions on fairness
A difficulty that immediately arises is the practical impossibility of devising a mechanism for distributing the proceeds to copyright holders that is considered "fair" by all copyright holders and consumers. Implemented systems are typically restricted to music and may distribute the proceeds proportionally to a measurement of sales of CDCompact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
s in music shops or amount of air-play on radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
or the like. This ignores other distribution channels such as the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
, and it disproportionally benefits popular artists and publishers of the related products. Fairer methods would arguably involve extensive sampling
Sampling (statistics)
In statistics and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population....
of purchasers to determine actual recording behaviour, or alternatively paying all musicians at a simple flat-rate (the preferred method will depend on one's political views).
While the prime purpose of levy systems is to compensate authors, some part of the collected money is also used for general cultural funding purposes. In Germany this is even required by law. It acknowledges the purpose of cultural diversity - which is not necessarily identical to free market effects. This funding is usually executed by the same entities (collecting societies) that distribute the levy money to individual authors. One may question however whether these entities are properly qualified to make culture policy.
Levy systems assume that all authors want to exploit their work for money. However this is not always true, especially on the internet. Many authors do not write to entertain, but to inform readers, listeners and viewers. Often their purpose is to reach the widest possible audience rather than make the maximum profit from the copyrighted work by itself. The discrepancy between reality and the assumption underlying a levy system is growing as "web 2.0" matures, with pervasive user-supplied content, from Wikipedia to YouTube.
A further problem is to find a proper tariff base for levies. Conceivably the levy may be a percentage of storage media sales price (e.g. 3% in the US). The implication of such a scheme is however that the author gets ever less as technology proceeds and becomes less expensive. But a price based on units of information (bits, or megabits) is not fair either, as for instance a DVD can be used to store a film, a computer game, a large amount of documents, or measurement data. The cost of producing a certain amount of bits widely varies by type of information. Measurement data is even not copyrighted at all. Yet in today's world of converging technology, storage media can be used for a wide range of purposes.
An implementation question that arises is whether the tax applies to any type of copyrighted work or is restricted to a limited field such as music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
. If it is restricted then the issue arises of how to collect the tax on media which can also be used for other purposes. The options include:
- Collecting the tax on all media, regardless of the end use, and ignoring the injustice to purchasers with non-covered uses.
- Allowing taxed and untaxed media to be sold, but with only the taxed media providing the copyright-relaxation benefits.
- Collecting the tax on all media but allowing purchasers to claim a refund for media applied to non-covered uses.
Contrary Fairness arguments
- Although these complexities make the systems of levies are far from perfect they do have some advantages related to fairness in that since there is compensation for private copying where as in countries where there is no levies, there is a substantial amount of copying taking place without any due compensation being made.
- With respect to fairness in countries with the levy everyone is shares in the financial burden caused by the levy. In countries that do not have the levy, many people are copying music and never receive any reprimands while others are made an example and prosecuted. This is the similar argument that non-proponents to the levy system use to show fault. They advocate that if the levy cannot be precisely applied to the people that are private copying, it is a faulty system. Likewise, if you cannot reprimand all people that are copying illegally and not compensating the music industry, this is also a faulty system. One system over subscribes, the other undersubscribes, both have faults.
- Finally, those counties that do not have private copying laws are in fact making many of their citizens criminals. A law which makes potentially more than 50% of your population criminals does not seem to be a fair business practice. Lawyers rather than artists may well be the greatest beneficiaries in non-private copying/levied countries.
Legal effects
It is theorized that such levy may be linked to a corresponding relaxation of copyrightCopyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
law, by permitting the recording of copyrighted works on media for which the tax has been paid. However, there is little evidence to support this theory. On the contrary, lobbyists representing publishers and copyright holders have increased pressures to implement more restrictive laws, even on countries that have implemented private copying levy. In 2007, it was reported that International Intellectual Property Alliance put 23 of the world's 30 most populous countries into Priority Watch List, even though the United States, which was not in the list, has laws that are more liberal than the laws from the countries within the list.
Even when restricting levy system to devices that primarily play music, this itself creates loopholes that prevents collecting levies from cellphones, PDAs, and other all-in-one portable electronic devices. As a result, copyright holders will have to rely on even more laws to collect levy, and to increase rates of already levied product to recover perceived losses, which run against the political trends toward eliminating levy systems.
Australia
Australia does not have a private copying levy. Although legislation to create one was passed in 1989, it was declared unconstitutional in Australian Tape Manufacturers Association Ltd v CommonwealthAustralian Tape Manufacturers Association Ltd v Commonwealth
Australian Tape Manufacturers Association Ltd v Commonwealth 176 CLR 480 is a High Court of Australia case that provides guidance as to the constitutional definition of a tax.-Facts:...
.
Belgium
In Belgium a fee is charged on both blank media and recording equipment which is passed on to "Auvibel", which is in charge of distributing the funds. As of 1 February 2010, these fees are applicable for the following:- Equipment with integrated carrier:
- MP3/MP4 player, cellphone with MP3/MP4 functionality:
- capacity is less or equal to 2GB: € 1.00
- capacity is higher than 2GB and less or equal to 16GB: € 2.50
- capacity is higher than 16GB: € 3.00
- TV, Hi-Fi, combined DVD writer and videorecorder, multifunctional DVD home cinema, set top box, multimediacenter:
- capacity is less or equal to 256GB: € 3.30
- capacity is higher than 256GB and less or equal to 1TB: € 10.75
- capacity is higher than 1TB: € 13.00
- MP3/MP4 player, cellphone with MP3/MP4 functionality:
- Non-integrated equipment with integrated carrier:
- DVD recorder, DVD reader, CD writer, videorecorder, DVD home cinema:
- capacity is less or equal to 256GB: € 3.30
- capacity is higher than 256GB and less or equal to 1TB: € 10.75
- capacity is higher than 1TB: € 13.00
- DVD recorder, DVD reader, CD writer, videorecorder, DVD home cinema:
- For the following equipment, without integrated carrier, that are not integrate-able in a computer and work standalone, have a fee of € 2.00:
-
- Hi-Fi with radio-cassette-CD
- Combined DVD writer and videorecorder
- Combined DVD reader and videorecorder
- Portable radio-cassette recorder
- Combined portable radio-cassette-CD
- TV and combined DVD writer
- DVD recorder
- Cassette deck
- Videorecorder
- CD writer
- MiniDisc writer
- CD audio to MiniDisc writer
-
- Digital carriers:
- Memorystick, memorycard:
- capacity is less or equal to 2GB: € 0.15
- capacity is higher than 2GB and less or equal to 16GB: € 0.50
- capacity is higher than 16GB: € 1.35
- External hard drive:
- capacity is less or equal to 256GB: € 1.30
- capacity is higher than 256GB and less or equal to 1TB: € 6.75
- capacity is higher than 1TB: € 9.00
- blank CD-R/RW, MiniCD-R/RW, MiniDVD-R/RW, MiniDisc, audiocassette DAT: € 0.12/disc
- blank DVD+/-R/RW: € 0.40/disc
- Memorystick, memorycard:
- Analogue carriers:
- audiocassette, audiotape, videocassette 8mm: € 0.12
- videocassette: € 0.40
Canada
A blank media levy was introduced in CanadaCanada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1997, by the addition of Part VIII, "Private Copying", to the Canadian Copyright Act. The power to set rates and to set the distribution allocation is vested in the Copyright Board of Canada
Copyright Board of Canada
The Copyright Board of Canada is an economic regulatory body empowered to establish, either mandatorily or at the request of an interested party, the royalties to be paid for the use of copyrighted works, when the administration of such copyright is entrusted to a collective-administration society...
. The Copyright Board has handed the task of collecting and distributing the funds to the Canadian Private Copying Collective
Canadian Private Copying Collective
The Canadian Private Copying Collective is a Canadian non-profit/non-government organization created in 1999 to collect and distribute private copying royalties. The organization represents songwriters, recording artists, music publishers and recording companies. Issues are brought before the...
, which is a non-profit private organization.
In Canada:
- The levy applies to "blank audio recording media", such as CD-RCD-RA CD-R is a variation of the Compact Disc invented by Philips and Sony. CD-R is a Write Once Read Many optical medium, though the whole disk does not have to be entirely written in the same session....
s. - The levy is paid by importers and manufacturers of such media sold within Canada (and typically passed on to the retailer, and passed on to the purchaser).
- With the exception of the zero-rating exemption, the levy is collected regardless of the purchaser's end use of the media.
- The private copying levy is distributed as per the Copyright Board's allocation as: 66% to eligible authors and publishers, 18.9% to eligible performers and 15.1% to eligible record companies.
- The Canadian Private Copying Collective has developed a methodology by which the proceeds are distributed to rights holders based on commercial radio airplay and commercial sales samples, ignoring radio/college airplay and independent record sales not logged by Soundscan. This methodology has been criticized as favouring major-label artists at the expense of the long-tail. As of September 7, 2007 over one hundred million dollars has been distributed.
- In conjunction with the levy, the Copyright Act allows individuals to make copies of sound recordings for their own private, non-commercial use. They may not distribute the copy.
- In 2005, the Federal Court of Appeal overruled a 2003 Copyright Board decision which had applied the blank media levy to MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
players such as Apple Inc.'s iPodIPodiPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
, on the basis that such devices did not qualify as "audio recording medium" as per the Copyright Act definition. Before this, the proposed rates were $Canadian dollarThe Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
2 for players with less than 1 GBGigabyteThe gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...
of capacity, $15 for players up to 15 GB, and $25 for players 15 GB and over.
- On February 12, 2007, CPCC asked the Copyright Board of Canada to reintroduce the levy of $5 to $75, this time onto the memory component of the digital audio recorders (such as MP3 players) in Canada.http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/12/mp3-player-levy-could-be-reinstated-in-canada/ In addition, CPCC also proposed levies of $2 to $10 for memory cards (since withdrawn), 8 cent increases to CD, CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio and MiniDiscs.http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/story.html?id=cccd9ce1-5279-4145-9874-a179b5be067f&k=26495 Certain parties objected to this tariff based on the 2005 Federal Court of Appeal precedent and brought a preliminary motion before the Copyright Board that would have prevented that part of the tariff application from being considered. The Copyright Board dismissed this preliminary motion in July 2007.
- In September 2007, an application for judicial review was brought before the Federal Court of Appeal to appeal the Copyright Board's dismissal. On October 26, 2007, the court granted the Canadian Recording Industry Association's request to intervene in the private copying/iPod levy judicial review.http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2334/125/ Some argue that CRIA wanted to limit the scope of the private copying levy, given that it legalizes copying for the private use of the person making the copy, possibly regardless of whether the source is non-infringing or not.http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2238/125/
- In January 2008, the Federal Court of Appeal overturned the Copyright Board's July 2007 decision, stating that its previous ruling in the 2005 Canadian Private Copying Collective v. Canadian Storage Media Alliance case is dispositive authority for the proposition that "the Copyright Board has no legal authority to certify a tariff on digital audio recorders or on the memory permanently embedded in digital audio recorders."http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/01/11/levy-recorders.html
Canada's current private copying levies are as follows: $0.24 per unit for Audio Cassette tape (40min or longer), and $0.29 per unit for CD-R, CD-RW, CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio and MiniDisc.
Finland
As of beginning of 2011, the fees are (in EuroEuro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
s):
- €0.005/min for analog audio tapes (e.g. €0.30 for a 60 minute cassette)
- €0.0076/min for analog video tapes (e.g. €1.37 for an E180 tape)
- €0.20 per disk for CD and MiniDiscMiniDiscThe disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...
(capacity: up to 1 GB) - €0.60 per disk for DVDDVDA DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, DVD-RAMDVD-RAMDVD-RAM is a disc specification presented in 1996 by the DVD Forum, which specifies rewritable DVD-RAM media and the appropriate DVD writers. DVD-RAM media have been used in computers as well as camcorders and personal video recorders since 1998.-Design:DVD-RAM is one of three competing...
, DVD-R DLDVD-R DLDVD-R DL , also called DVD-R9, is a derivative of the DVD-R format standard. DVD-R DL discs hold 8.54 GB per side by utilizing two recordable dye layers, each capable of storing nearly the 4.7 gigabyte of a single layer disc -almost doubling the total disc capacity...
and DVD+R DLDVD+R DLDVD+R DL also called DVD+R9, is a derivative of the DVD+R format created by the DVD+RW Alliance. Its use was first demonstrated in October 2003. DVD+R DL discs employ two recordable dye layers, each capable of storing nearly the 4.7 GB capacity of a single-layer disc, almost doubling the total...
(capacity: from 1 GB to 10 GB) - €1.20 per disk for Blu-ray DiscBlu-ray DiscBlu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
and HD DVDHD DVDHD DVD is a discontinued high-density optical disc format for storing data and high-definition video.Supported principally by Toshiba, HD DVD was envisioned to be the successor to the standard DVD format...
(capacity: over 10 GB to 25 GB) - €1.80 per disk for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD (capacity: over 25 GB)
- €4 to €21 depending on capacity of digital audio players or personal video recorders.
- €4, memory up to 512 MB
- €7, over 512 MB to 1 GB
- €10, over 1 GB to 20 GB
- €12, over 20 GB to 50 GB
- €15, over 50 GB to 150 GB
- €18, over 150 GB to 250 GB
- €21, over 250 GB
- €5 to 10€ for external hard disk drives:
- 5€, over 250 GB to 950 GB
- 10€, over 950 GB to 3 TB
- smaller and bigger drives have no levies
There is no levy fee on mobile phones, computers, memory cards, game consoles, USB flash drive
USB flash drive
A flash drive is a data storage device that consists of flash memory with an integrated Universal Serial Bus interface. flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, and physically much smaller than a floppy disk. Most weigh less than 30 g...
s and 8 cm (3 in) CDs/DVDs. VAT
Vat
Vat or VAT may refer to:* A type of container such as a barrel, storage tank, or tub, often constructed of welded sheet stainless steel, and used for holding, storing, and processing liquids such as milk, wine, and beer...
of 9% is added to the levies.
Germany
The world's first private copying system was created in Germany in 1965. It was a result of earlier successful litigation by GEMA against an audio equipment manufacturer in GEMA v. Grundig.Luxembourg
Luxembourg is the only EU member state on the continent without a private copying levy, making it a popular “copying levy haven” for blank media buyers from countries such as France and Germany.Netherlands
In the Netherlands a fee is charged on blank media which is passed on to "Stichting Thuiskopie" (Foundation Homecopy), which is in charge of distributing the funds. Fees for February 17, 2007 until January 1, 2010 are as follows;- Data CD-R/RW: € 0.14 per disc
- Audio CD-R/RW: € 0.42 per hour (€ 0.52 per 74 minutes)
- Blank DVD-R/RW: € 0.60 per 4.7 gigabyte
- Blank DVD+R/RW: € 0.40 per 4.7 gigabyte
- Blank DVD-RAM: exempt
- Video analog (video tapes): € 0.33 per hour
- Audio analog (cassette tapes) € 0.23 per hour
- MiniDisc: € 0.32 per hour
- HI-MD: € 1.10 per carrier
Russian Federation
Article 1245 of Civil Code of Russian Federation "Remuneration for free reproduction of phonograms and audiovisual products for private purposes" ("Вознаграждение за свободное воспроизведение фонограмм и аудиовизуальных произведений в личных целях") mandates a fee, which is to be distributed in the following proportion: 40% to the authors, 30% to the singers, 40% to the manufacturers of the media. In practice, this fee had not been charged until after the Regulation of the Government of Russian Federation 829 from October 14, 2010, which mandated a uniform 1% tax on computers, blank optical disks, memory sticks, TVs, video and audio recorders, radios, mobile phones, etc. The controversial decision of the government to award the collected funds to the Russian Union of Rights-Holders for further distribution was criticized by the public and disputed in a lawsuit.Sweden
In Sweden there is a fee called "privatkopieringsersättning" (private copy retribution) earlier called "kassettersättning" (cassette tape retribution) on compact cassettes, blank CDs, blank minidiscs and other storage media. As of September 1, 2011, this fee will apply to external hard drives and other USB storages as well. The fee is 2.5 öre (0.025 SEK) per minute of storage for analog media or 0.4 öre per MB for re-recordable media or 0.25 öre per MB for write once media. The money collected (224436151 SEK as of 2005) is handled by Copyswede.Switzerland
- Tax on recordable DVD (GT 4d):
- CHFSwiss francThe franc is the currency and legal tender of Switzerland and Liechtenstein; it is also legal tender in the Italian exclave Campione d'Italia. Although not formally legal tender in the German exclave Büsingen , it is in wide daily use there...
0.36 per recordable DVD - CHF 1.00 per rewritable DVD
- CHF 0.38 per 25 GB on HD disks (Blu-ray)
- CHF
- Tax on digital storage media such as microchips or hard drive recording devices audio and audiovisual (GT 4d):
- Audio recorders CHF 0.80 per GB (gigabyte)
- Audiovisual recorders:
- CHF 0.10 per GB until 250 GB
- CHF 25.00 and CHF 0.08 per GB from 250 GB
- Compensation for the transfer of use of set-top box with memory and vPVR (GT 12):
- CHF 1.00 per month and subscriber if the following charges do not apply
- CHF 0.13 per month and subscriber if free or part of the basic package
- CHF 0.55 per month and subscriber for monthly subscription fee up to a max of CHF 6.50
Audio home recording in general
, as legislated by the Audio Home Recording ActAudio Home Recording Act
The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 amended the United States copyright law by adding Chapter 10, "Digital Audio Recording Devices and Media"...
of 1992, says that non-commercial copying by consumers of digital and analog musical recordings is not copyright infringement. Non-commercial includes such things as resale not in the course of business, perhaps of normal use working copies which are no longer wanted. It is unlikely to include resale of copies in bulk; Napster
Napster
Napster is an online music store and a Best Buy company. It was originally founded as a pioneering peer-to-peer file sharing Internet service that emphasized sharing audio files that were typically digitally encoded music as MP3 format files...
tried to use the Section 1008 defense but was rejected because it was a business.
From House Report No. 102-873(I), September 17, 1992: "In the case of home taping, the [Section 1008] exemption protects all noncommercial copying by consumers of digital and analog musical recordings" .
From House Report No. 102-780(I), August 4, 1992: "In short, the reported legislation [Section 1008] would clearly establish that consumers cannot be sued for making analog or digital audio copies for private noncommercial use".
The United States music industry administers the Audio Home Recording Act
Audio Home Recording Act
The Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 amended the United States copyright law by adding Chapter 10, "Digital Audio Recording Devices and Media"...
and foreign hometaping royalties for artists on US sound recordings as well as US record labels. These royalties are administered by The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies
Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies
The Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies. is a non-profit US royalty collective, assembled by the US music industry in conjunction with the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, that protects the rights of featured artists and recording companies both domestically and abroad in the areas of...
for featured artists and copyright owners, ASCAP/BMI
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
/SESAC
SESAC
SESAC, originally the Society of European Stage Authors & Composers, is the smallest of the three performance rights organizations in the United States. SESAC was founded in 1930, making it the second-oldest performing rights organization in the U.S. SESAC is also the fastest-growing PRO in the...
for writers, Harry Fox Agency
Harry Fox Agency
The Harry Fox Agency is the United States of America's largest agency collecting and distributing mechanical license fees on behalf of music publishers.-External links:*...
for publishers, and The AFM/AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distributoin Fund (Joint venture of AFM
AFM
- Organizations :* Africa Fighting Malaria, a health campaign in Africa* Alex von Falkenhausen Motorenbau, a German racing car constructor* American Federation of Motorcyclists, a road racing club in the United States...
and AFTRA ) for non-featured artists. All societies also collect foreign remuneration for their respective funds.
Blank music CDs and recorders
bars copyright infringement action and provides for a royalty of 2% of the initial transfer price for devices and 3% for media. The royalty rate in 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. The royalty also applies to stand-alone CD recorders, but not to CD burners used with computers. Most recently, portable satellite radio recording devices contribute to this royalty fund. .Thanks to a precedent established in a 1998 lawsuit involving the Rio PMP300
Rio PMP300
The Rio PMP300 was a portable consumer MP3 digital audio player , and was produced by Diamond Multimedia. It was introduced September 15, 1998, and it shipped later that year.-Features:...
player, most MP3 players are deemed "computer peripherals" and are not subject to a royalty of this type in the U.S.