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."

Comments

Finally!!

[ParrotDroppings]

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 !!

Good

[mrsev]

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!"

Interesting, but probably futile....

[Willeh]

It's a nice gesture, but i doubt it's gonna work. Over where i live (the Netherlands) the national copyright association (we actually have 2 similar ones) is under fire for shady practices with regards to taxes on blanc DVD-R's and so on. What needs to be done is protest the existance of these vague agencies whose working are mostly unnnoticeable (does the money really go to the artists?) at a national level, by openly questioning the existence of said agency.

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.

Interesting quote

[smellystudent]

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? :-)

You cannot tax illegal activity

[erroneus]

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.

Re:Why can't we let market forces rule here?

[Rude Turnip]

"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.