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Dutch Pass iPod Tax
An anonymous reader writes "The Register is reporting that in a few short months a proposal to tax all MP3 players in the Netherlands will become law. The levy taxes 3.28 euros ($4.30 US) for every gigabyte of capacity. This means a 60GB iPod Photo will be hit for an additional 196 euros ($258), all of it going to the record industry's copyright collection agencies. And they call file sharers thieves?"
While this seems extravagent (it is), places like The Netherlands and Sweden, etc. have excellent copyright and IP laws. Its widely known that taxes in those countries are very high, but unlike some nations (cough), you see that cash put to work. It would be interesting to see how they handle iPods bought in Germany or France, and brought over.
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch.
The US doesn't have a CD-R/MP3 player tax like other countries. This proposal is just absurd.
However, similar regulations already exist for blank CD-ROMs, tapes, and photocopiers, because it is assumed that these are (partly) used for the copying of copyrighted material.
Such copying is legally allowed, the levy exists as a compensation for the copyright holders.
I think it is possible that a levy on MP3 players will come into existence but at much lower sums than now proposed.
In the Netherlands it is legal to make extra copies of media you own, or to make a copy of a CD or DVD you borrowed from a friend, neigbor, etc. The copyright holders are compensated through a tax, in a rather obscure way. It is illegal to sell copyrighted work, or make copies and give away the copies yourself. All this is explained (in Dutch) by Stichting De Thuiskopie
I wouldn't be surprised if the situation were the same in Denmark.
Well, this is old news in Holland (see article on tweakers.net, English version available too).
For now it is a prooposal only, but the current Dutch government is pretty good in 'silently' upgrading such things to law.....
In fact, the proposal is even worse than mentioned in the article.
The tax is not only intended for iPods/MP3 players, but for ANY device capable of storing copyrighted content for later playback.
That includes, computers, HD and DVD video recorders, even spare HD's, SD and Comapct Flash memory, etc.
All major computer manufacturers have already written letters to the Dutch prime-minister stating, that if this insanity becomes law, they will be forced to withdraw from the Dutch market.
Several members of the Dutch parliament (at least from the opposition parties) have spoken out their concern's about this too.
So far the government has made no attempt to actually get this "law" throught the legislation process.
I just hope they never will get around to it.
Current Dutch political climate is such that no Parliament member will vote against party policy. The parties of the ruling coalition will never vote against the government so any proposal is bound to be accepted.
We cannot pirate music: it's legal here to make private copies of music and movies, even if you do not own an original. That's the other side of the levy system...
Translation of the nu.nl article for the English speaking crowd.
WOERDEN (city in NL) - Big IT companies such as Apple, Sony and Philips took action in the Netherlands against the plans to add a copying levy for mp3 players. Within two months such a levy is to be expected, so said B. Taselaar of ICT Office, the industry organisation that represents the companies.
At the moment there is a proposal for a levy of EUR 3,28 per Gigabyte of data storage. This proposal has been made by 'Stichting Thuiskopie' according to ICT Office, which is responsible for the collecting and distributing of payments to copyright holders for the copying of blank audio carriers.
An iPod music player from Apple with 40 Gigabyte of data storage would increase in price with EUR 131. This is unacceptable, according to ICT Office, also because introduction into multiple European countries looms on the horizon. The industry organisation thinks that IT companies will in the future choose to introduce new products first in the United States and Asia. New developments will pass by Europe, with all consequences for the Netherlands electronics sector.
(c) ANP
Jeroen Ruigrok/Asmodai
So, I bought my car in the Netherlands. They even have higher taxes on those, than here in Austria.
I paid my tax in austria and came away with a saving of somewhere in the 3000-4000 EUR (4000+ US$).
Since we can trade goods without problems and import tax, you can buy something for the price including tax in germany and ship it to the netherlands.
Friends of mine do that with blank CD's and DVD's thru ebay all the time. We also have a lot of tax on those, but when you already paid your tax in germany, you don't have to do so in Austria again.
It all just boils down to knowing what to buy where and how.
Course, Apple will loose a bit of sales in the Netherlands, but maybe that will leave us with "upgradeable" ipods with exchangable HD's? Sometimes even big cooperations get creative, if they fear they will sell less.
-- MicAttAck
Religon is an insult to human dignity.
As said: DOWNLOADING of audio/video is legal here. Uploading however is not. Placing stuff on a public webserver would fall under the uploading category.
To quote from the link: "Het bestuur van de SONT heeft nog geen besluit genomen over de hoogte van het tarief; de onderhandelingen zijn gaande. Berichten die suggereren dat er al enige duidelijkheid is over de hoogte van een tarief zijn onjuist.", which translates as, "The management of the SONT has not decided yet on the height of the tax; that is still being negotiated. Any statements that suggest that there is any clarity on the height of the tax are false." This message is from April 2005.
The tax on blank DVDs is something like a couple of cents. I suspect that the tax on storage space in MP3-players will probably not be much higher.
You're telling me that in two years, we'll have 1000GB laptop drives (~10x up) and 1000000GB desktop drives (~2000x up)? Man, Moore must have been a pessimist.
But you can fit more bits on a platter if they Get Perpendicular!
"Hey! Check me out! I'm dancing! I'm dancing!"
While the proposal is real, the register's claim it will be Eur 3.28 per gigabyte is not correct. The website of the Stichting Thuiskopie explicitly states (loosely translated): "Reports stating there is any agreement at all about the level of taxation are incorrect".
He who laughs last, thinks slowest.
how do you spell "something from Nederlands"?
:o)
"Dutch".
I think this is kind of academic as goods are allowed to be freely distributed for personal use within the EC, and anyone in Holland who wants an ipod will just buy it mail-order from the UK or somewhere without the tax.
Exactly the same thing has happened with the iTrip - it is illegal to sell or use here in the UK but so many have been imported, that they are turning a blind eye to the selling now.
It's a bit like trying to tax the super wealthy - if you try to do it too much, they just move somewhere else, and you end up with no money.
I am sure that the shop sellers of ipods will just arrange to have them delivered from another country, but will lose out big time to the intenet and mail-order sales. If they want to destroy their high-street shops, who are we to stop them?
Humorous signatures are over-rated.
Actually, in the Netherlands it's still legal to download music and movies for personal use. It's illegal to share it though, because only the copyright holder has exploitation rights.
They do not tax blank paper just yet.. But they *DO* tax *owning* a copier as well FAX machines! The reason being that you *could* use these to copy books or magazines with copyrighted material.
I get more and more discusted by these MAFIA organisations, who are somehow legalised by the Dutch government. It's totally *SICK*
To Terminate, or not to Terminate, that's the question - SCSIROB
But these taxes aren't going to the cops, they're going to the recording industry, who are just strongarming the average user into paying a unjust fee. If I buy an Ipod, I pay the high price of the Ipod, I pay this extremely high tax, and THEN I pay Itunes for DRM'ed music that the music industry says isn't charging me enough. I'm just disgusted by their tactics and I'm not the only one. Their actions are turning many people against them and it's giving people the mindset that they might as well pirate the music because the music industry's recent tactics make them less worthy of our honest consumer dollars.
"Plans are for fools! Oglethorpe, the plutonian (Aqua Teen Hunger Force)
http://www.iusmentis.com/auteursrecht/nl/thuiskopi e/
Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. You pay twice, once for the songs you buy and once with the levy. Paying the levy has no legal implications in the sense that you can now download whatever you like. On the other hand downloading is legal as it stands now in the Netherlands. You are allowed to make copies for study etc. Hosting and offering copyrighted content without consent of the copyright holder is not allowed, downloading without consent is.
The US doesn't have a CD-R/MP3 player tax like other countries.
How much you wanna bet?
This may come as a shock to you, but not only are you wrong, but the US was one of the first countries to introduce something like this.
this is untrue: One of the basic ideas od the EU is: Free Traffic Of Persons And Goods So it's perfectly legal. As far as the tax systems go, they are not comparable. In Europ due to the 'socialist' (=/= comunist) system in most countries, the 'IRS' knows what you've earned, you only have to fill in extra investments and such.Yo don't have to declare each and every expense