I explained to a friend why blank media(DVD and CD) are taxed in europe. the "fee" will go to copyright owners.(btw, i doubt of that)

...and I said more they tax us, more people will download illegal files on the p2p.

the person said I was totally wrong, they tax us so we can say to our friends and family if they stop to download files, they wont tax us anymore!!!

I said that s BS, because nothing will stop people to download, tax or no tax on media.

I am stupid or he is stupid???

c) All of the above

And yes, the blank media tax/levy is to compensate copyright holders for copies of their work made on blank media.

C)

so and where is my money from levy.

I am an artist and so far I have nor seen 1 euro coming!!!I want my $$$ , the money u are stealing from me... u took the bread of my mouth and my kids have now nothing to eat!!

this tax is BS...it is just a new way to tax us and nothing in return.

You have to be listed with the organisation that collects these fees.

And it is no tax...

Whats the difference? It's applied to ALL media (in my country), and even though the "fee" goes to Copy-Swede, it's mandatory by state law. So whats a tax then?

Officially it's a levy, but the word tax also gets used a lot. I think tax can only be collected by the government, while a levy can be collected by anyone.

/me starts to doubt this now, because airport taxes don't get collected by governments either...

blank media has been taxed for many years so that the music and movie industry can get compensation for copying.

it isn't fair to those simply backing up files but it allows leeway in the copyright laws so that you can make personal copies in case of damaged originals.

are the artists getting it? who knows and who cares.

i know this doesn't apply to the US, but is it just the EU or other countries also?

There are other countries with a blank media levy, such as e.g. Canada.

The blank media levy for blank DVD media was very extreme in Denmark until June 11th this year. The levy was 10.07 DKK per DVD plus 25% VAT which is equivalent to $2.13 (USD) or €1.69 per DVD.

The levy for blank CDs is unchanged at 1.88 DKK per CD, which is equivalent to $0.40 (USD) or €0.31 per CD.

This has created a lot of business for on-line shops in Germany and Sweden (close to the danish border) that sell blank media to Denmark without having to pay the levy. It's perfectly legal for private persons to but media without levvies like this, but business would be responsible for paying the levy themselves.

The levy for blank DVDs has just been lowered significantly on June 12th and now it's 3.00 DKK per DVD plus 25% VAT, which is equivalent to $0.64 or €0.50 per DVD.

Due to the high levvies there is little price competition on blank media in danish shops, and it's still 3-4 times cheaper buying blank media on-line from Germany or Sweden or even farther away.

thanks for the detailed info Drage! I didn't realize this was happening right in canada...i'll be sure to lay off the media deals if i'm ever visiting.

out of curiousity, does the advertised price usually inclue the levy or is that added at the point of purchase like a regular sales tax would be? or would that vary depending on the retailer?

I wouldn't know about Canada, but in Denmark all taxes, levvies, VAT etc. have to be included (by law) in the listed price in all shops open to private persons.

VAT doesn't have to be included in the listed price in business-to-business commerce, but taxes and levvies must be included.

So everything is included in the price in "normal" shops.

[Off-topic]
Fortunately we haven't been infected by the "mail-in rebate" horror that you have in the US, and I hope we never will be! So the price you see is the price you have to pay.

[OT]

Nope, neither have we here in the UK - I think I could've had a rebate on a Voodoo3 3000 card back in the day, but that's it thank God

[/OT]

Heh, and here I was thinking our tax (I prefer that word) was high. I buy all my discs from Germany and Luxembourg, the price difference is redicilous.

A levy for blank media was never picked up on in the US simply because we HATE taxes. As all things deemed "evil" and "wrong" its more about the intention rather than the physical object. The arguement that people have the potiental to burn copyrighted material, thus calling for a tax, has always failed in America. It has already been ruled that file sharing is legal becuase not all material within a peer to peer system will be breaking the law. Likewise, not all material recorded on blank media will be legally protected. Your family photos, your own music, and other media shouldn't be taxed...at least that's the arguement.

I don't know if the levy really works. Its like the government announcing that the copyright holders would only lose X amount of cash via piracy. I don't think the RIAA or the film industry have decided how much X should be, and probably wouldn't even settle on a levy if given the option.

surfpark,

no it is not working. all the tax system in europe is a hole sucking money with no end.
we dont know where they money go, certainly in the pockets of corrupted politicians to buy guns, not to the artists...

this is like in other departments, more we pay tax, more we think we should have something in return.so people will start to download to compensate their loss(in tax).even people who have not downloaded anything illegal, will times to times download a movie, then 2 and then 3 movies a week.
then they will discover it is not so bad to pay taxes and have free movies in return.I live in europe for years and i know how the social system works.who to blame at the end???

The greedy guys.

in Canada you only pay the GST and PST. Th price you see on the ad or sign at the comp store is what you pay. This tax/levy is the reason in Canada, why music downloading is currently not illegal.

thanks for the info on canadian oricing.

are you saying that in canada it's legal to use a P2P like limewire to download copyrighted music? weird.

well its not ILLEGAL....but I cant say that having an unlimited number of songs being shared on the network wouldnt somehow, somewhen get ya some grief. What my sister has been told from shaw cable in alberta (several times with phone calls ) is when you are done downloading a song or movie, to remove it from your shares folder. They really dont care about the letters from mpaa and riaa because of this levy according to the calls she received.

Not entirely correct.. there was a separate Supreme Court ruling that the ISP doesn't have to give out personal subscriber data to the *AA. Since the *AA doesn't have strong evidence (enough to get a warrant) the ISP doesn't have to worry about legal liability.

Hey what about Australia and tax levy?

^ There is no tax levy (other than the standard GST) on blank media in Oz.

I'm glad we don't have such a silly and archaic levy. As if the money will go to "copyright holders" anyway (whatever the heck that means). It's unjust for people who burn DVD loads of legal and/or personal content.

I mean what kind of copyright holders? Who decides?

Even if the money was distributed, most would probably go to greedy, bone-idle representative corporations (RIAA/MPAA types)