Petteri Pyyny
28 Dec 2004 13:16
German court has decided in favor of Germany's recording industry's lobby group, the VG Wort, in a dispute that has been going on between it and the country's largest PC maker, Fujitsu Siemens. The decision means that Germany will become the first country in Europe to apply a copyright levy of €12 (appx. $16.33) on all new PCs sold.
Copyright levy as a concept is a rather widespread and widely accepted system across the western countries. Many countries allow home users slightly more copyrights, such as a permission to make limited number of copies of CDs or DVDs they've rented or loaned from their friends for their personal use. The copyright levy is then applied to the recordable storage medium -- originally on analog C cassettes, later to blank video tapes, then to blank CDRs and DVDRs -- and that paid levy is then paid to organizations representing artists, composers, etc compensating them for lost revenue. And now, German court has decided that all PCs are theoretically just multimedia storages and should be treated the same way as blank VHS tapes.
Fujitsu Siemens is considering to appeal the case. The decision, if it stays unchanged in higher courts as well, will apply to all new PCs sold in Germany. CEO of Fujitsu Siemens, Bernd Bischoff, called the copyright levy "a de facto tax on PCs".
Source ITWorld.com