Quote:
Originally Posted by llreader
In Spain we pay a tax on hard drives, flash memory, etc. to pay for piracy, but it is still illegal to copy, How does that make sense? And the money goes to this organization, no one know how they divvy it up (and how much the keep for themselves).
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In the Netherlands we have such a tax (levy) only for writable CD's and DVD's. On the other hand the law allows us to make copies for personal use. It's the same article of the law that regulates both. There isn't even a requirement that you own the original, so you can make a copy of a CD that you borrow from a friend. Or even download from the Internet. So at the moment as the law stands, it is not illegal to download illegal stuff. Only the uploading is illegal because it is a form of publishing/broadcasting. The law doesn't speak about music or video so this also applies to ebooks. So the interesting thing is that for example downloading an ebook from a Canadian site where it is PD because the author died more than 50 years ago while still being copyrighted here because we have life+70, is considered legal. It would also apply to pirated copies. But you cannot sell or give away the copy; it is only for personal use.
If you keep the copy on your hard disk, MP3 player or ereader you don't pay the levy, of course. So people from the copyright mafia have proposed to also put the levy on hard disks, memory sticks, MP3 players etc. Anything that has a mass storage. Of course that would also apply then to office PC's, so I don't think it has a big chance. For the time being it won't get into the law, I think. The discussion about it died.
The government also has been talking about changing the law so that you will not be allowed to make copies of illegal content. I have no problem with that but then the levy should at least be diminished. The industry should not have their cake and eat it too!
PLEASE NOTE: This is not a legal advice. IANAL.