A second look at the BSA and European levies
This was all the buzz on and around the and then dropped like a lead baloon the next day. News is funny that way - release a press release and see it spread like wild filre, burning itself up as it goes.
The full report with details on what the BSA has found on a per country basis is interesting reading if you have all of 2 minutes here
But the quick take is that European consumers are taxed heavily. If this is news to you, then let me introduce you to socialism, big government, high taxes, high unemployment, and a little think we call in America “The Decomcrats plan for making your life better under their control not yours”.
Europeans are forced by their Kings and Queens, no wait - Europeans enjoy paying these usage rights on legal copy-protected music downloads multiple times because of outdated private copy levies enacted by their legally elected democratic representatives in their local governments. This is not some EU imposed new concept as part of the might of Europe under the EU.
The anti-piracy group the Business Software Alliance (BSA) has issued a report calling for the scrapping of these levies to coincide with a meeting of the European American Business Council in Brussels.
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, BSA
Francisco Mingorance, director of public policy in Europe for the BSA, said in a statement: “With DRM technology’s expanding role in the market, levies have become a superfluous double tax on consumers. Levies were designed to compensate for un-policeable private copying. But with DRMs the rationale for levies disappears.”
The BSA argues that the rise in online content protected by digital rights management (DRM) technology makes the need for private copy levies obsolete. These levies were originally designed as a tax on people making private copies of tapes and CDs they had bought.
While the UK does not impose these levies, I refer you to the above referenced report from the BSA for a country by country review of not only what is taxed, but how much funding these local governments take in.
Mingorance said: “Lawmakers cannot ignore that private copy levies are increasingly obsolete in the digital age. Governments have an opportunity to bring real consumer benefits by applying the European Copyright Directive rules and phasing out the outdated levies system.”
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