(business) Dutch Plans For MP3 Player Tax (moved from ATSNN), page 1

posted on Apr, 29 2005 @ 10:52 AM

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The proposed piece of Dutch legislation will place a £3.28 (or $4.3) additional cost per Gigabyte. It is unlikely that it will NOT pass, and is expected to cause waves of outcry over copywrite laws. Under the propsed system, the top-end iPod (60GB) would have an addition £200 or $260 added to the price.

www.theregister.co.uk
The tax is being proposed by the Stichting Thuiskopie foundation, and is set to become law in the Netherlands in a few short months unless the European Commission finds a reason to intervene. It is unlikely that will happen, as it has failed to come up with a policy for levy taxation so far.

The idea of all levy based legislation is that some form of copyright collections agency collects tax by imposing a surcharge at the point of sale for any storage devices that could possibly be used to store pirated works. This certainly extends to the iPod which has up to 60 GB of storage, and which can store MP3 files.

Because of the fact that the great bulk of iPods are used to store legitimate iTunes files which are Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected, this means that copyright is being purchased twice over for these devices if a levy is also paid.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

I think the last line says it best. "Or the Dutch could just become a nation without iPods. I wonder how happy that would make them?"

I predict a HUGE decrease in mp3 player sales in the Netherlands. The policy is insane. I might pay $500 for an mp3 player, but I sure as hell wouldn't pay $760 for one. There'll be a nice black market, I suppose for these things.

Perhaps they should download music illegally as a protest?

sardion2000

posted on Apr, 29 2005 @ 10:55 AM

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Downloading is already legal there I believe, thier "fair use" laws are alot more encompassing then ours are, it allows for instance a person to share to as many non-paying people as they want(as long as they are not making money off of thier efforts), thus the tax to appease, it's a bit stiff mind you and will just drive business away from the Netherlands as people go to other countries in search of Tax-Free IPods.

[edit on 29-4-2005 by sardion2000]

Zipdot

posted on Apr, 29 2005 @ 11:01 AM

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Hah! Absolutely and completely ridiculous. This is what happens when braindead, technologically stupid politicians are influenced by media industry vultures. Sooooo stupid. 760 dollars for a 60 gigabyte hard drive? Just because it has the POTENTIAL for storing pirated items? I just bought a 250 gig harddrive for 130 bucks!

How do they distribute the taxes to copyright holders? I better get a piece, there's a possibility of my recorded works being pirated, and this tax is supposed to help the artist, right? Or what? What is the reasoning here? I'll expect my check in the mail.

Zip

sardion2000

posted on Apr, 29 2005 @ 11:05 AM

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Don't hold yer breath

The money is obvously going to go to the "Associations" involved.... it is stupidity I agree, they can never adapt to technology they always have to fight it and try to kill it...

TheBandit795

posted on Apr, 29 2005 @ 11:08 AM

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Yep, there is a black market there. It's near a small town called Beverwijk. I've been there. Every thing is cheap cheap...