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How do you get your cut of that? Say you are a random person who picks up a guitar, learns how to play it and releases an album (self published). How do you claim your share of this tax?

You can apply for an exemption on the tax for whatever media you decide to publish your work on. This assumes that the media would be used exclusively for works you own, such as CD or DVD, and you'd avoid the few cents of tax on each (at least, on -R media, but obviously not on -RW media).

If you were to distribute digitally via the net or on pre-recorded memory sticks or suchlike, then you'd have to join one of these organizations to get compensated. Note, also, that you'd be unlikely to get very much unless you have a major hit on your hands. The total amount distributed is fairly small and almost half of it goes to "promotional" organizations rather than to the copyright royalty collectors.

How do you get your cut of that? Say you are a random person who picks up a guitar, learns how to play it and releases an album (self published). How do you claim your share of this tax?

You can apply for an exemption on the tax for whatever media you decide to publish your work on. This assumes that the media would be used exclusively for works you own, such as CD or DVD, and you'd avoid the few cents of tax on each (at least, on -R media, but obviously not on -RW media).

If you were to distribute digitally via the net or on pre-recorded memory sticks or suchlike, then you'd have to join one of these organizations to get compensated. Note, also, that you'd be unlikely to get very much unless you have a major hit on your hands. The total amount distributed is fairly small and almost half of it goes to "promotional" organizations rather than to the copyright royalty collectors.

How do you get your cut of that? Say you are a random person who picks up a guitar, learns how to play it and releases an album (self published). How do you claim your share of this tax?

You can apply for an exemption on the tax for whatever media you decide to publish your work on. This assumes that the media would be used exclusively for works you own, such as CD or DVD, and you'd avoid the few cents of tax on each (at least, on -R media, but obviously not on -RW media).

If you were to distribute digitally via the net or on pre-recorded memory sticks or suchlike, then you'd have to join one of these organizations to get compensated. Note, also, that you'd be unlikely to get very much unless you have a major hit on your hands. The total amount distributed is fairly small and almost half of it goes to "promotional" organizations rather than to the copyright royalty collectors.

please tell me you are not serious.

Serious? In Finland one's rights go even further: it is legal to copy any published material for private consumption, even if it's material obtained from the public library. We already pay a levy on blank writable CD/DVD disks and on all sorts of external media (SD/CF/USB drives, media players, etc.). This levy is distributed to rights holders in lieu of copyright fees or attempts at extortion through the legal system.

In my case, the levy is more than generous enough, considering that my SDHC cards are for my own creations (photos, videos), and most of my external drives are for backup of my main drives or archiving of my created materials. Our CDs and DVDs are ripped to our media server, and we copy stuff without hesitation to our MP3 players. In other words, either we've paid for it once already, or we're actually the creators.

In Italy we already pay the local performing right organization for every hd we purchase to cover the costs of piracy. Would that mean we can put a lil pirate stuff there? nope.

In Finland, we already pay a levy on all external media (SD, CF, USB sticks, external drives, media players, etc.). Does this mean we can legally copy - for private use - any material published in Finland? Hell, yes, of course we can! The levy is distributed among rights holders by a number of copyright societies.

I would guess you live somewhere libel laws are quite strict. The kind of country who would rather have censorship than gossip.

Not really. To be actionable in Finland, a libel or other form of defamation must be known to be false by the person making it in addition to being injurious to its target. Forget megabuck settlements also, as Finnish courts tend to award actual damages (without any wild-eyed interpretation of "actual") rather than exemplary or punitive amounts.

It's far more likely that either (i) some of the content at www.nationalenquirer.com is licensed by its providers only for the US and maybe Canada and some other English-speaking countries, or (ii) Finland is just in a blanket exclusion due to incompetence by the web site developers.

BTW, there are decent translations into English of the primary laws of Finland, but secondary laws (i.e. regulations set by government agencies), case law, and bills of parliament are only in Finnish and Swedish at FinLex. Regulations are sometimes translated by the relevant authority, and are often set quite sensibly - even reasonably - such as for private copying of all copyright materials published in Finland.

You don't pay these fees. You order from foreign webshops instead.

Almost every country in the EU has these fees, the exceptions being Luxemburg, UK, Ireland, and Cyprus, none of which is cheaper than buying the fee-paid price in Finland. Buying from outside the EU involves additional issues, such as hassles and paperwork to clear customs, and paying VAT on the shipping costs (which are always a lot higher per unit for small shipments to individuals than for bulk shipments to businesses).

In short, it's cheaper to buy a 2TB USB drive here (€90) including all taxes, than to buy one in the UK (£98). Shipping costs are lower within Finland than from the UK as well.

It's depressing to think how much the "usage taxes" will be for such drives, if used as external devices. At present, we pay euro18 for 1TB to 3TB USB disks to the so-called rights groups. This would rise proportionately to at least euro360 for 60TB. This fee allows us to lawfully make copies of published works (music, movies, TV) in Finland. However, it probably does not allow uploading of such works, or copying internationally; one should have access to licensed media, even if from the library or from broadcast TV.

We have about 30TB of storage on-line at home, of which 6TB is internal disks in the media server and 12TB is external disks for its backups (all are only about half full). Similarly, the web server and PCs have about 5TB of internal disks and 7TB of backup and archive storage in external disks. It's irritating to pay such fees when one is the creator of much of the data going onto these 19TB of external disks (including photos and home movies on the media server), and license fees have been paid for the remainder (source CDs, DVDs). It will likely become even more irritating when the fees are scaled up.

Do you think you have the right to do this?

Yes, both morally and legally.

Sadly, even though you kept the original DVDs as proof of purchase, you still broke the law by ripping them. You'd still be labeled a "pirate" by the content industries.

Actually, that's country-dependent. In this country, we're allowed to lawfully format-shift media. In fact, we're allowed to lawfully copy any published media, including media borrowed from public libraries. The libraries have quite a few CDs and DVDs. This is because we pay a copyright levy on all blank CDs, blank DVDs, blank BluRays, and on all Flash media devices as well as USB disks and whatnot.

It the most maddening bit of the DMCA that by using your DVD the way you want, you're still violating the law.

Agreed completely, at least for those countries where this is true.

Sadly, even though you kept the original DVDs as proof of purchase, you still broke the law by ripping them. You'd still be labeled a "pirate" by the content industries.

Actually, that's country-dependent. In this country, we're allowed to lawfully format-shift media. In fact, we're allowed to lawfully copy any published media, including media borrowed from public libraries. The libraries have quite a few CDs and DVDs. This is because we pay a copyright levy on all blank CDs, blank DVDs, blank BluRays, and on all Flash media devices as well as USB disks and whatnot.

It the most maddening bit of the DMCA that by using your DVD the way you want, you're still violating the law.

Agreed completely, at least for those countries where this is true.

Because in some jurisdictions, which at least until a few years ago consist of the entire world except the US and a hand full of puppet states, distributing a copyrighted work for personal use without the copyright holder's authorization is perfectly legal, and it is so very legal to the point that it is even explicitly authorized in the copyright code. So, these copyright trolls can't touch the people covered by those jurisdictions, and hence they are free to distribute any copyrighted work as they see fit.

One example being Finland, where a levy is charged on blank media (CDs, DVDs, USB sticks, fixed disks, etc.) to compensate rights holders, with a proportion going to those representing local producers (about 2½ M euro out of 6 M euro collected in 2010). In return, Finns are allowed to legally copy any media they want for personal use, including CDs or DVDs borrowed from public libraries or from friends.

Because in some jurisdictions, which at least until a few years ago consist of the entire world except the US and a hand full of puppet states, distributing a copyrighted work for personal use without the copyright holder's authorization is perfectly legal, and it is so very legal to the point that it is even explicitly authorized in the copyright code. So, these copyright trolls can't touch the people covered by those jurisdictions, and hence they are free to distribute any copyrighted work as they see fit.

One example being Finland, where a levy is charged on blank media (CDs, DVDs, USB sticks, fixed disks, etc.) to compensate rights holders, with a proportion going to those representing local producers (about 2½ M euro out of 6 M euro collected in 2010). In return, Finns are allowed to legally copy any media they want for personal use, including CDs or DVDs borrowed from public libraries or from friends.

Because in some jurisdictions, which at least until a few years ago consist of the entire world except the US and a hand full of puppet states, distributing a copyrighted work for personal use without the copyright holder's authorization is perfectly legal, and it is so very legal to the point that it is even explicitly authorized in the copyright code. So, these copyright trolls can't touch the people covered by those jurisdictions, and hence they are free to distribute any copyrighted work as they see fit.

One example being Finland, where a levy is charged on blank media (CDs, DVDs, USB sticks, fixed disks, etc.) to compensate rights holders, with a proportion going to those representing local producers (about 2½ M euro out of 6 M euro collected in 2010). In return, Finns are allowed to legally copy any media they want for personal use, including CDs or DVDs borrowed from public libraries or from friends.

Something like this is already in Finland.

The rates in Finland are somewhat lower than those proposed for Portugal. Moreover, elsewhere on that site they say what consumers get in return: "Everyone is allowed to copy published works, such as music, movies, television and radio broadcasts for their own private use in Finland."

It is also quite clear that the compensation allows copying of movies and music on disks borrowed from libraries and suchlike. No doubt, the RIAA and MPAA would be a little queasy at such provisions in larger markets.

Something like this is already in Finland.

The rates in Finland are somewhat lower than those proposed for Portugal. Moreover, elsewhere on that site they say what consumers get in return: "Everyone is allowed to copy published works, such as music, movies, television and radio broadcasts for their own private use in Finland."

It is also quite clear that the compensation allows copying of movies and music on disks borrowed from libraries and suchlike. No doubt, the RIAA and MPAA would be a little queasy at such provisions in larger markets.

Something like this is already in Finland.

The rates in Finland are somewhat lower than those proposed for Portugal. Moreover, elsewhere on that site they say what consumers get in return: "Everyone is allowed to copy published works, such as music, movies, television and radio broadcasts for their own private use in Finland."

It is also quite clear that the compensation allows copying of movies and music on disks borrowed from libraries and suchlike. No doubt, the RIAA and MPAA would be a little queasy at such provisions in larger markets.

Something like this is already in Finland.

The trouble is, thats like saying Toshiba, Seagate, Samsung, Hitachi and Western Digital are profiting from Pirating because people store illegally acquired content on their hard drives.

In Finland, we call it Hyvitysmaksu.

Obviously millions of users agree with Slashdot. Can millions of downloaders be wrong? In the end the users are the ones doing it, NOT the torrent sites. And for your information, copyright infringement happened before torrents. Additionally in Finland (where I live) we have a private copying remuneration system, so I have already paid for my downloads: http://www.hyvitysmaksu.fi/Teosto/hymysivut.nsf/wpages/index_en.html

I live in Finland and here everybody is a "pirate". That's the law. We're all guilty and can plead to be not guilty, only if we're are corporation. I've already paid for all content e.g. the piratebay can offer me.

http://www.hyvitysmaksu.fi/Teosto/hymysivut.nsf/wpages/index_en.html

196 euros extra price? Damn that's greedy!

In Finland, for MP3 players, Teosto charges 0.005 euros per minute on average capacity. For devices over 2.2 gigabytes, they have capped the levy to 15 euros! And that max actually went down recently, from 25 euros per 3.96GB!

Far more reasonable prices in my opinion...