German Patent Office mediator wants copyright levy on PCs

Most EU Member States already impose levies on the price of copying equipment, such as blank audio and video cassettes, and also photocopiers and tape recorders, to compensate copyright owners for the lost royalties from private copying of music, movies, text and images.

The UK, Ireland and Luxembourg do not impose such levies; nor does the US.

Following strong lobbying from collecting societies, which receive copying tax money on behalf of copyright owners, a number of EU Member States, including Germany and France, have extended the measure to high-tech copying equipment, such as CD-Rs (recordable CDs), DVDs and scanners.

In June 2001, a German court ordered Hewlett Packard to pay a copyright levy on the sales of its CD burners. The same year, the French government revealed plans to impose copying levies on high-tech devises that can be used for digital copying.

The measure has not yet been applied to PCs, due to fierce opposition from an industry that already operates on tiny profit margins.

Last month, The European Information and Communications Trade Association (EICTA), an IT and telecoms industry group whose members include Microsoft, Fujitsu, Alcatel, Nokia and Siemens, warned the European Commission against the extension of copying levies to high-tech copying equipment and recording material.

The group argued that such levies would raise the price of digital devices for businesses and consumers, and recommended that technological measures to deal with illegal copying would be a better solution. According to the EICTA, private copying levies to compensate copyright owners are unfair, because private copying is not piracy.