According to a study, some European music downloaders are paying usage rights on their copy protected files multiple times due to outdated private copy levies. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) has urged European countries that have applied this extra tax to legal music downloads, to scrap them. According to the BSA, music downloads that are protected by DRM are being offered in increasing numbers so the need for private copying levies is no more.
Under DRM, music downloads carry a royalty at the point of purchase, so a percentage goes to the artists and labels. "With DRM technology's expanding role in the market, levies have become a superfluous double tax on consumers," Francisco Mingorance, director of public policy in Europe for the BSA, said in a statement. "Levies were designed to compensate for unpoliceable private copying. But with DRM, the rationale for levies disappears."
The levies don't apply in the UK but do in several European countries. Taxes are imposed on PCs and music playing equipment in some EU countries. "Lawmakers cannot ignore that private copy levies are increasingly obsolete in the digital age," Mingorance said. "Governments have an opportunity to bring real consumer benefits by applying the European Copyright Directive rules and phasing out the outdated levies system,"
Source:
News.com
Thanks to venomX05 for sending us a News Submission.
The levies don't apply in the UK but do in several European countries. Taxes are imposed on PCs and music playing equipment in some EU countries. "Lawmakers cannot ignore that private copy levies are increasingly obsolete in the digital age," Mingorance said. "Governments have an opportunity to bring real consumer benefits by applying the European Copyright Directive rules and phasing out the outdated levies system,"
Source:
News.com
Thanks to venomX05 for sending us a News Submission.
