Price of blank CD/R may rise in Oz - thanks to pirates
From an article in the Australian IT today, full article here that obviously attributes revenue downturns on pirated copying of MP3's, DVD's etc ..
Quote:
CONSUMERS face a hefty slug on blank CDs and DVDs if a levy proposed by the industry is accepted by the federal Government.
The audio-visual copyright society, Screenrights, and its music industry counterpart, the Australasian Performing Right Association, want to introduce the fee to compensate their members for "rampant" illegal copying of commercially produced CDs and DVDs. The proposal sounds similar to the fee charged on blank cassette tapes, abandoned when the High Court ruled the charge was a tax, not a levy.
But Screenrights and APRA, which want a recording levy of between 3 per cent and 10 per cent, believe the new charge would survive a High Court challenge.
The articles goes on to say ....
Quote:
The scheme would recognise the legitimate, non-infringing use of blank CDs and DVDs by allowing buyers to obtain a refund upon application.
"There's nothing novel in this," Mr Lake said. "Forty-three countries including the US, Canada and most EU nations have enacted private copying royalty schemes."
Could someone from any of these 43 countries please explain how this works ??
and what if I only use my CD/R media to backup my free open source (linux) software, updates and personal work, photo's etc ... what processes are in place in these countries to get your refunds ??
