MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Europe's dysfunctional private copying levy to remain (Ars Technica)

mosteo · 01-10-2010, 12:27 PM

I'll try to present my understanding of how things operate in Spain. Corrections welcome.

Basically, the industry here wants its cake and eat it, too.

The history goes so, if I'm not mistaken:

The term "private copy" was defined before the levy. Afterwards, the levy was put in effect, in order to compensate authors, but without any repercusion for users (that is, users didn't gain anything from the levy, but started to pay extra money).

Nowadays, there's constant struggle between the receivers of the levy (which are private "non-profit" entities, with the duty of fairly redistributing it to authors) and the citizens. On one hand, the receivers of the levy try to narrow down what's a private copy, and on the other hand they try to outlaw as much as possible of the copying/p2p practices.

The outlawing is in two fronts: legal (just yesterday a new law was passed that basically tries to remove from judges the decision to close a website, since all rulings against p2p *link* sites have exonerated them) and propaganda. You're told at cinema, radio and TV, both by private and government funded campaigns, that copying is stealing and killing the industry. Private copy is never alluded to.

Basic points challenged by the industry are that links are offending (which, to date, have been found by judges not to be, even if the hosting site has income from publicity [3]) and that downloading (not uploading) is illegal (which according to some is private copy, to others is not).

In short, soon (as things are shaping in the latest years) Spain will have the most swooping levy while everything will be as illegal as anywhere else. 3-strikes has also been commented from time to time to probe waters.

Today we have levy on blank media(!), hard disks(!), mobile phones(!), media writers... among others. Full list in [1].

Basically, we're paying for the same concept multiple times, receiving nothing in return (private copy predates the levy), and at the same time we are being told to face that we are the worst country in regards to piracy, in no moderate terms [2].

The proposition that the levy has to be paid with the purchase of the original support (for example a release music CD), which according to the collecting agencies is the only source for a legal private copy, has been however considered preposterous.

[1] http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_p...Espa%C3%B1a%29

[2]
http://www.filmica.com/david_bravo/archivos/007046.html
http://www.labrujulaverde.com/musica...s-internautas/

[3] http://www.filmica.com/david_bravo/archivos/008718.html

01-10-2010, 12:27 PM	#4
mosteo Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Spain Device: PRS500 / N-Gage QD	Meanwhile in Spain... I'll try to present my understanding of how things operate in Spain. Corrections welcome. Basically, the industry here wants its cake and eat it, too. The history goes so, if I'm not mistaken: The term "private copy" was defined before the levy. Afterwards, the levy was put in effect, in order to compensate authors, but without any repercusion for users (that is, users didn't gain anything from the levy, but started to pay extra money). Nowadays, there's constant struggle between the receivers of the levy (which are private "non-profit" entities, with the duty of fairly redistributing it to authors) and the citizens. On one hand, the receivers of the levy try to narrow down what's a private copy, and on the other hand they try to outlaw as much as possible of the copying/p2p practices. The outlawing is in two fronts: legal (just yesterday a new law was passed that basically tries to remove from judges the decision to close a website, since all rulings against p2p link sites have exonerated them) and propaganda. You're told at cinema, radio and TV, both by private and government funded campaigns, that copying is stealing and killing the industry. Private copy is never alluded to. Basic points challenged by the industry are that links are offending (which, to date, have been found by judges not to be, even if the hosting site has income from publicity [3]) and that downloading (not uploading) is illegal (which according to some is private copy, to others is not). In short, soon (as things are shaping in the latest years) Spain will have the most swooping levy while everything will be as illegal as anywhere else. 3-strikes has also been commented from time to time to probe waters. Today we have levy on blank media(!), hard disks(!), mobile phones(!), media writers... among others. Full list in [1]. Basically, we're paying for the same concept multiple times, receiving nothing in return (private copy predates the levy), and at the same time we are being told to face that we are the worst country in regards to piracy, in no moderate terms [2]. The proposition that the levy has to be paid with the purchase of the original support (for example a release music CD), which according to the collecting agencies is the only source for a legal private copy, has been however considered preposterous. [1] http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_p...Espa%C3%B1a%29 [2] http://www.filmica.com/david_bravo/archivos/007046.html http://www.labrujulaverde.com/musica...s-internautas/ [3] http://www.filmica.com/david_bravo/archivos/008718.html