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MP3 Company Refuses to Pay Swedish Copyright Levy

Posted by Hemos on from the fight-the-power dept.

praps writes "Swedish MP3 player manufacturer Jens is to be hauled before the courts for flatly refusing to pay a charge designed to compensate copyright owners whose music is copied to a different format for private use, reports news site The Local. Jens says the surcharge, administered by Copyswede, is unreasonable and that "it's not our problem that the record industry hasn't come up with its own solution". Apparently Apple doesn't pay it on their iPods either."

14 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. 85 million kronor by mysqlrocks · · Score: 5, Informative

    Last year, 85 million kronor in cassette compensation was collected and redistributed by the copyright organisation Copyswede.

    FYI, 85 million kronor is appx. 11 million U.S. dollars.
    --
    Bradley Holt
  2. jens by MrSpiff · · Score: 5, Informative

    Jens is commonly known as being one of the few public figures in sweden standing up against the swedish equivalence of RIAA/MPAA, Antipiratbyrån ("The Antipiracy Bureau").

  3. Re:Finally!! by drstock · · Score: 3, Informative

    I hope they will put the trial on TV like they did with mr. Jackson.

    Actually, here in sweden it's not allowed to film or take photos in court. You are only allowed to record sound and make sketches.

    --
    My other comment is funny
  4. Apple DOES pay the personal copy tax... by l0ne · · Score: 4, Informative

    ...in Italy, at the very least. The amount of the tax (out of the total cost of the iPod) is shown in red at the bottom of each iPod price page at the Apple Italy store (http://apple.com/italystore).

  5. MPAA/RIAA on the offensive in Sweden by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    A few months ago, there was a case where the MPAA/RIAA oriented anti-copyright agency, the piratbyrån used insiders to plant evidence on a company's server and then raid them BSA style. There is also a lot of pro-softwarepatent work and lobbying going on behind the scenes in the agencies.

    1. Re:MPAA/RIAA on the offensive in Sweden by md2perpe · · Score: 5, Informative

      Ehm... It was not Piratbyrån, but Antipiratbyrån.

    2. Re:MPAA/RIAA on the offensive in Sweden by sp3tt · · Score: 5, Informative

      Ok, what idiot modded this overrated? It is clearly informative.
      Piratbyrån ("The pirate bureau") is an anti-copyright, non-profit organization. Antipiratbyrån ("The anti-pirate bureau") is the MPAA and BSA's face in Sweden. They do not represent the music industry, a common misconception.
      Piratbyrån's name is a pun on Antipiratbyrån. Piratbyrån is also against software patents, and has often figured in Swedish TV.

      The incident refered to by the Grandparent was in March. Antipiratbyrån made a raid on the Swedish ISP Bahnhof, which incidentally happened to be in the same building. Four servers were confiscated by the police, they were thought to contain copyrighted material. The disks were encrypted, so no luck there. Later it was revealed by a group of hackers that an employee of Antipiratbyrån had planted the material on the servers. FYI, we're talking a few hundred gigabytes. Email conversations between the employee and Antipiratbyrån were published on antipiratbyråns webpage, which was hacked.
      Bahnhof later published a report (not available in English) about the incident, claiming that Bahnhof had nothing to do with it, and that Antipiratbyrån themselves were guilty.

  6. The actual law by bwz · · Score: 5, Informative

    So people can discuss with some more information, the actual law is "Lag (1960:729) om upphovsrätt till litterära och konstnärliga verk" available (in Swedish, sorry 'bout that, I'll try to translate the relevant portion as a reply to this) here. The relevant paragraph is chapter 1, 26 k .

    --

    Has it ever occurred to you that God might be a committee?
    --- Jubal Harshaw
  7. Re:Free mp3's by hackstraw · · Score: 3, Informative

    I hope these companies can prove there are enough free mp3's and paid mp3/wma services available that such taxation isn't required.

    Unfortunately, there are no free MP3s.

    http://www.mp3licensing.com/help/developer.html

    http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/index.html

  8. Interesting slight of hand. by Greger47 · · Score: 3, Informative
    I remeber the debate when the levy was introduced. Since it wasn't really illegal to copy music privatly from friends the levy was introduced on blank casette tapes to compensate the music industry. As technology progressed more formats where included, like CD-ROMs, DVD-Rs, and MP3 players. Even hard drives have been suggested by the music industry!

    Nowdays we have stricter copyright laws and even coping between friends is strictly forbidden, and suddenly the levy is described as beeing compensation for me copying the music I already own to a different medium.

    It seems someone want's to keep the cake and eat it to...

    /greger

  9. Re:You cannot tax illegal activity by Kadin2048 · · Score: 2, Informative

    It was, I believe, for not reporting his "income." The money was all laundered and couldn't be proven conclusively to come from illegal activities other than gambling (although it was rather clearly coming from the alcohol trade), but what they got him on was not paying taxes on his 'gambling' income.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone
    http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/famcases/capone /capone.htm

    In something that's tangentially related, did you know that your gambling losses are tax deductible? Kind of ironic that the fiscal incentive to donate money to the Red Cross is the same that it is to blow it down at the track on the ponies.

    --
    "Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
  10. Re:Finally!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Don't forget (the late) Rio Audio who was the first MP3 player company to face the legal wrath of the RIAA (and won opening the door for iPods and other players).

  11. Re:Finally!! by shark72 · · Score: 2, Informative

    " WRONG. The money goes to copyright holders. Most artist do not own their own copyrights. Their record companies do."

    You're partially correct. Here in the US, the record company typically owns the copyright on the recording, while the artist retains the copyright on the words and music -- also known as the "publishing rights." Here in the US we have a couple of non-profit societies, ASCAP and BMI, that make sure the artists get paid for radio airplay, jukebox airplay, and pretty much everything else unrelated to actually selling the CD. As an aside, ASCAP and BMI aren't directly related to the collecting of the levy on music CD-Rs in the US, so they're not the direct equivalent of Copyswede.

    Copyswede, the organization referenced and linked to in the summary, represents the creative folks -- including organizations like "The Association of Swedish Illustrators," "The Swedish Playwrights' Union," and so on. The relevant ones here are SAMI (a link in English which will give you some good background) -- the Swedish Artists' and Musicians' Interest Organization -- and the Swedish Federation of Professional Musicians (which does not have an English site that I can find).

    I hope this helps. If you have any other questions, just ask. Your assertations that Copyswede gives money to record companies, and that I am incorrect, are interesting. Please let me know if you have any citations to back this up.

    --
    Sitting in my day care, the art is decopainted.
  12. Open Letter to JENS by bratwiz · · Score: 2, Informative

    All I can say is "Right-Fucking-On"!

    FINALLY a company with BALLS.

    I bookmarked your site. I just found where I'm going to be doing my Christmas shopping.

    Tell those SLIMY BASTARD RECORD COMPANIES they can fold it twice and shove it where the sun don't shine.