Australian Gov't Lobbied To Implement Media Levies

TheScream writes "Screenrights has been activly promoting its proposal for a CD-R DVD-R levy (similar to that implemented in Canada, as previous reported on /.) with a 5 minute interview on popular Australian breakfast television show Today. News.com.au reports that Screenrights and APRA "...want a recording levy of between 3 per cent and 10 per cent..." and includes highly debateable mis-truths such as "Every kid does it, so let's facilitate some standards in the marketplace.""

Comments

Refunds available on application?

[teamhasnoi]

What? So I'm supposed to send them a copy of the CD that I used to back up my HD? "Here's proof!"

Sure, that sounds like a great idea. Swamp the law-abiding users with paperwork, so everyone will bend over and take it.

Of course, the cry that, "We offer a refund!" will be the sound byte, not the 12 page invasive rebate form.

I think I'll hire the people that sign up for Yahoo accounts all day to fill out thousands upon thousands of applications. I might even break even....

Re:A different view

[Fazlazen]

Many people do use cdrs and cdrws to distribute pirated music.

Just because there are some people that do it, does not mean that everyone else does. Punishing the whole for what only a portion of the people are (as you admit!) does not seem morally correct to me.

At work, we use blank CDs to fulfill orders from customers and mail their data to them. Why should our customers end up paying levies on media (like we're going to absorb the cost? HA!) to have their data delivered to them?

Granted, most of the CDs burned that I see my friends make are for copying software, not music, but you don't hear about the SPA asking for levies on blank CDs.

As for blank DVD's, the only thing that I do with those is convert my home movies to DVD for me to send to my family.

Over forty countries have tariffed CD blanks

[Anonymous Coward]

In the U.S., naturally, we get no rights in return for the tariff, although in some countries copying copyrighted works is permissible to some extent in exchange for the tariff (in Canada and Germany, for example, you are free to copy music that you are borrowing from a friend or library to a disc for personal use, but Napster-type MP3 serving is illegal). I'd bet the U.K. has this type of tariff, given that U.S. copyright laws were almost completely crafted to fall in line with the European laws concerning copyright (i.e.: Berne), which is amusing given the amount of fingerpointing going the other way for things like the DMCA.

Australia will almost definitely roll over to this type of law given their policies in the past, so anyone living there might want to push their representatives to at least give you something in return.

I watched it.

[Slurpee]

I actually watched the broadcast, and it was disgusting.

The shmuck claimed that "every family" does it, as does "every kid". When asked how much it would be, he said they have no idea yet, but wants it to be worked out in consultation. Obviously thats a lie, as other posts point out they want anywhere from 3-10%.

He pointed out that this levy would make it OK, but not for those who do wholesale copying.

What was worse is the show didn't have anyone else on there representing the other view.

My question is: If a levy is set, does this mean I am free to download any mp3 I wish? Could I borrow all of my friends CDs and have hundreds of thousands of mp3s legally? Cause if it does, bring it on! I will never buy a CD again!

At the moment I don't mp3 illegally (IE I buy my own CDs and mp3 them, but not others), but if it was made legal through the levy, I would certainly burn hundreds of CDs from friends.

Re:A different view

[Dynedain]

Over the years, I have purchased and used 7 CD burners. I have burned at least 2000 CDs. Of those, about 10 were an original music project I was working on (nothing the music industry had any rights to), about 5 were audio compilation cds made from mp3s I legitatmately bought the original CD (content the music industry does have the right to) and the rest of the batch (at least 1985 CDs) were various data backups, file transfers, etc.

If, the record industry got 3 cents for each CD (that is their minimum here, they'd rather have the 10c) I would (and actually have, thanks to stupid US law) payed the music industry $60. I have not copied any music I have not paid for, bet yet I am taxed the cost of 150-200 more blank media. If it was a 10cent tax, then I would have spent $200.....that is about how much I have spent on my entire music collection (the vast majority of my collection is gifts). $200 is a pretty hefty chuck of money to have paid for the priveledge of transfering my own content to my own media for my own purposes, especially when that $200 is being given to a massive corporation that had absolutely nothing to do with how that media was used, and had lost absolutely nothing in sales to my actions.

Sell "music" not CDs

[AnotherBlackHat]

Why not sell CD-RWs with a song pre-recorded on them (this should work in Canada too.)
I can see three advantages;
1. You beat the tax (I'm assuming they include an exemption for pre-recorded media like Canada and virtually everybody else.)

2. You become a music producer, so you can collect the tax that your competitors pay.

3. You probably have the number one song on the charts, since people will buy far more than
one copy of a CD-RW- basically free advertising.

You could probably sell the title track for money too -
Coke would pay to have the number one song in Australia be a commercial for their product,
especially if they got to pick the name of that song.

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