Quote:
Originally Posted by mr ploppy
Just for clarity, no artists get any of the money from that tax, it all goes to large corporations.
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Apparently it depends (once again) one the region - because there is a separate collecting company for each country (if not multiple. Also, interestingly, the german word is much better: "Verwertungsgesellschaft" - roughtly translated it would mean "(re)processing/recycling company"...).
From what little I know, hereabouts the artists have to actually go to the companies and tell them "You collected money for my music, can I please have my share?".
(I've read - on the internet - of a curious case where an artist performing his own songs had to pay the collecting company because he played protected music...)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pablo
AFAIK, the tax is not to compensate for piracy, just for personal backup copies of the original media.
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Right, but that is usually treated the same. After all, if you have to circumvent use-protection, I mean copy-protection, you probably already broke the law and pirate the content...
(Don't forget - you BUY the medium, but LICENSE the content. Being able to use it isn't defined anywhere, is it?)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan
I never said, or even implied, that "everyone is a pirate." I did say, or probably implied, that the web's lack of security makes it easy for anyone to be a pirate, and that needs to be fixed.
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But the message that comes across - at least how I see it - is basically "You all are pirates and condone mass pirating of all books and everything! It's YOUR fault I don't earn any money!"
I think I can understand your POV, but I also think you need to differentiate more.
Personally I see two types of pirates:
*) Individuals who copy for friends
*) Organisations that exist only for that and make money off it
IMO, the latter is the problem, not the former. But DRM and similar is ONLY targetted at the individual.
DRM punishes the customer for buying and using the product.
It at best annoys the pirate when he removes it.
The real problem are those who take money from potential customers.
If someone got a book "for free", they either wouldn't pay anyway, or might consider buying it "for real".
But those that already "paid" for it aren't likely to spend even more money for something they already "bought".