Most EU Member States already impose levies on the price of
copying equipment, such as blank audio and video cassettes, and
also photocopiers and tape recorders, to compensate copyright
owners for the lost royalties from private copying of music,
movies, text and images.
The UK, Ireland and Luxembourg do not impose such levies; nor
does the US.
Following strong lobbying from collecting societies, which receive
copying tax money on behalf of copyright owners, a number of EU
Member States, including Germany and France, have extended the
measure to high-tech copying equipment, such as CD-Rs (recordable
CDs), DVDs and scanners.
In June 2001, a German court ordered Hewlett Packard to pay a
copyright levy on the sales of its CD burners. The same year, the
French government revealed plans to impose copying levies on
high-tech devises that can be used for digital copying.
The measure has not yet been applied to PCs, due to fierce
opposition from an industry that already operates on tiny profit
margins.
Last month, The European Information and Communications Trade
Association (EICTA), an IT and telecoms industry group whose
members include Microsoft, Fujitsu, Alcatel, Nokia and Siemens,
warned the European Commission against the extension of copying
levies to high-tech copying equipment and recording material.
The group argued that such levies would raise the price of
digital devices for businesses and consumers, and recommended that
technological measures to deal with illegal copying would be a
better solution. According to the EICTA, private copying levies to
compensate copyright owners are unfair, because private copying is
not piracy.
