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MP3 Company Refuses to Pay Swedish Copyright Levy
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."
At last, one real-world company that fights back to the MPAA/RIAA/Copyright mongers!
I hope they will put the trial on TV like they did with mr. Jackson.
L33T ! W00T !!
Free ?! Does that mean I can't get a Discount ?!
This message was
May I wish them all my support. As far as I see it it is a tax that is paid to a private company. In the same way that when ever I do a data back-up I must pay "sony et al" some money for the "blank media" . This is in Portugal at least. One shop tha tI know....mediamarkt. Actually puts how much you pay on he receipt. In this way I found out I was also paying a "recycling" tax on my RECHARGABLE batteries.
"They shaft us coz we take it!"
It does seem pretty damn unfair that Apple would be exempt, since they don't manufacture their players in Sweden. I'd urge all Swedes to buy their media/ players that are burdened by taxes that would go to this agency abroad like we've been doing (i buy all my blancs in germany, where there are no unfair taxes. Hell, over here the tax is more than the media itself!) for a while now.
Will wank off Linus Torvalds for fame.
I'm glad someone is taking a stance. Goodness, if no one fights back now, then in 10 years we will be paying dearly for every byte of information we get ahold of.
A statement from CopySwede: "As the law stands, people have the right to make copies for private use, so the copyright owners should be fairly compensated."
:-)
Isn't that what they pay for when they buy the music?
Or is he saying that Swedes only pay for the right to have a single copy of the music on the medium supplied, and must not transfer it to any other medium?
Does copying it in electronic form to stranded copper count?
Predictive text is shiv!
When I transfer music I legitimately own to another format for my continued personal use, that's a fair use of my copy. Otherwise all the thieving recording industry need do to extort another round of profits from me is discontinue the old player, the old format. Formats are now so much more often new software, therefore cheaper to roll out (and less of a loss in discarding) than the old hardware formats. So the record industry wants to force upgrades of the same content. How many times must I pay to continue to listen to _Dark Side of the Moon_? That's why they're trying to stop us from doing it ourselves. It's certainly cheaper and even easier for them than producing some new content that I'll like.
--
make install -not war
Jens is the founder of the company Jens of Sweden, a company that mainly imports and resells Asian mp3/music players under their own brand. It's a business that has made Jens a millionaire in a really short time. I consider their products to be so-so, but a lot of my friends own one. I've also heard that he's quote "an ass" in real life, but nevertheless he's a pretty smart one.
A couple of months ago in Sweden there was a large public debate regarding copyrights and illegal downloading over the internet because the government was was setting in the motion of banning it "once and for all". And that's when I got respect for Jens: Because of his popular company and respect in the business world, he got a lot of media attention. He used it to criticize the current music industry, telling them to push and advance their business instead of trying to patch up a stone age one. I remember a debate on public television where it was Jens with a couple of other pro-Internet people versus a bunch industry henchmen. It was some exciting television!
Regardless of what you think of him as person, he's been a very important figure in this country, and he's fighting on our side. Too bad for example there isn't a "Jens of the United States" that can do the same for the Americans.
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
You just can't say it more clearly than that.
If the activity is legal, there can be taxes imposed. One might argue "this isn't a tax." Okay, so technically, it's not, but it is in many respects. Further, somewhere along the line is an assumption of unlawful infringement by the users sponsored by the makers of media players. This 'legal' assumtion circumvents the free-world's notion of due process under law.
I have been an opponent of preemptive copyright infringement compensation since I first heard of it. It flies in the face of presumed innocence and due process that we, the people of the free democratic societies have always expected. The only "approriate" way for this to be legally established is for the **AA's to lawfully SUE all consumers in every country in a tremendous class-action suit against infringement activities. I'd love to see them try that too. They'd loose and people would more directly hate them for it.
The biggest problem with all of this is that the public at large is still unaware of how this affects them. So as long as the costs to consumers are hidden (by charging the media and hardware makers) consumers will pay the price on the label and move along as if nothing wrong has occured.
Actually something similar is happening in China. Due to the high level of movie piracy it's harder and harder to make traditional and more costly action movies and recoup the costs. Accordingly, they're not being made.
However, the movie industry still exists in an admittedly different form.
Here's a good example in our country. In part to cut down on piracy, the movie industry is thinking about releasing DVDs the same time movies are released in the theater. So instead of wasting hours downloading the lastest Hollywood crap you could simply go to Blockbuster and get if for a few bucks or Netflix for less than a buck.
This change may kill off most theaters. However, the movie industry would still exist.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
We have Patricia Santangelo, http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/01/22 10219&from=rss, the mom standing up to the RIAA. We don't have ane enforced tax on CD media or iPods that I know of. This is one of the examples where our Legiscritters seem to have given away a bit less of our rights than those of some other countries.
The RIAA may be suing people who have allegedly broken the law - or whose computers were used to break the law - but to my knowledge, there's no "reimbursement" tax on the bulk of law-abiding citizens.
Now, how was that Grokster case going again...doh!
Civil disobedience is a natural and expected reaction to stupid laws, if they are stupid enough.
How about most major resellers refusing to sell Jens' products, since the warranty circus takes forever to get through?
Some stores have taken on themselves to repair the players themselves, at an economical loss, only to serve their customers better than Jens does.
Or, perhaps, Jens famous fights with his korean suppliers, how his payments are late/few etc.
Never trust a guy that wants your money to do something for the greater good.
"This change may kill off most theaters."
Quite frankly, I am dreaming for the day that movie theaters will become a rarity that will only be enjoyed by true movie fans, instead of a dumping ground for rude children. Charge me $25 per ticket for a nice seat, serve reasonably priced food and absolutely forbid anyone under 21 from entering the building. Sounds elitist? Damn right...but let's face facts, most theaters are crap nowadays because of the annoying kids. I'm not even 30 yet and I'm complaining about it.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
A stupid tax like this could increase the price of *ANY* device capable of playing digital audio files, so lets start:
- PDA (Audio Jack connector: if its mono pay only half tax:)
- Mobile phones (almost any recent model can play audio files)
- Laptop (wow this one have big hard disk, does it mean increased taxing?)
- Desktop (did anyone hear a computer playing music?)
- Servers (yep we all know Microsoft Servers operating systems come preloaded with Windows Media Player:) Humm.. a 2TB storage server can cost more in music TAX than the system itself.
I understand what you are saying, but I disagree on all levels. I look at it from a consumer's point of view in saying that MY price will go up if THEIR price goes up. Plus the concept is just ridiculous. Why should the government enforce a subsidization of a private enterprise? Why not cut the BS and just increase your taxes so that the government can issue an MP3 player to every citizen? Same thing, really!
That's exactly my philosophy. Paying any sort of "piracy levy", in my opinion, fully justifies piracy in my mind. Hell, it stop being piracy because we're technically paying for it, and if we DON'T copy the media, we're being bilked!
-Z
There a are a lot of quirks. For example, All You Need to Know About the Music Business mentions in passing at one point, that until recently, jukebox owners didn't have to pay royalties every time a song got played, because they were legally toys.
This is so true. I would encourage people to buy from jens and site this as one of their reasons. The other reason is many of their plays play OGG!
<rant>
There is no way Jens should be punished for a totally unrelated product. They sell a flash drive and circutry to play sound off that drive that might be all creative commons stuff or podcast or legit bootlegs... why should they pay those monsters a cent? What next? Hard drives are taxed extra? hearing aids? Internet connections? Phone lines? Mobile phones?
It's a load of BS and shows how corporatised many legal systems have become. If a company wants a law they agitate and lobby and some stupid politicians give it to them. It's time to stamp on the RIAA and MPAAs necks once and for all until they stop breathing.
</rant>
I don't think it is reasonable that a hardware company should pay for copyright infrignements made by the user of the hardware. Afrer all we don't charge gun manefactuerers with murder in case sombody should use their legally bought gun to kill sombody.
1 9/20050919075347_CS084/20050919075347_CS084.dbp.as p
Even so, Jens of Sweden is not my hero.
He really know how to cut down costs. One of his way of doing this is by not honering warranty agreements to customers that have had the misfortune of getting a fawlty product.
According to an article in todays number of Computer Sweden, all the leading Swedish chains of stores in electronics have decided to stop doing business with Jens of Sweden due to a large number of dissatisfied customers.
The article also states that several complaints on Jens of Sweden to the Swedish National Board of consumer policies have been filed over the last year
For those of you that read Swedish the article is on:
http://computersweden.idg.se/ArticlePages/200509/
God is REAL! Unless explicitly declared INTEGER
I have read about a few theatres that are doing it different: meals served, large comfy chairs with a table to eat on, cocktails (serving is before the movie). This is basically a take off on the dinner theatre.
I haven't gone to the theatre in about 10 years, mainly because the screens are too small, the people are too loud, the food is overpriced (its just freaking popcorn and coke, for god's sake...) and all too often, the movie sucks.
If they would work to improve the EXPERIENCE, then I would gladly go. There are too few entertainment choices for an adult as it is. Clubs are boring (been there, done that). Most evening entertainment is geared for 25 year olds. Dinner is fine, but not the movie afterwards in the current environment.
Give me a pleasant experience where they kick out people on cell phones, give me a nice meal (not too fancy, like baked chicken or fish, 2 veg & bread), a glass of wine or two (extra $), a comfy chair, and I will happily pay $25 to $50 each person, depending upon meal and comfort. Make it 18+ and I'm golden. They are missing out on a market that is already begging for a product.
I don't mind paying more, I just get fscking tired of getting less and less.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
There are several jurisdictions that require tax stamps for marijuana; Kansas, for instance. Yes, it's mildly insane. On the other hand, the country's attitude about marijuana is pretty schizophrenic, and Kansas is a farm state after all....
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
The worst part is that a government tax is supposed to go to the government. This is the government allowing the recording company to use the force of government to levy and collect tax, to be paid to their private company. That is wholly inappropriate, and likely illegal in all EU countries.
Think of it this way, if the government collects a tax from you to fund the school, they have to allow you to use the school now. If the government collects a tax to pay for copyright infringement, by that logic, they have to allow you to infringe.