France Mulling Private Copying Levy on Non-Windows Tablets
France Mulling Private Copying Levy on Non-Windows Tablets
Posted 12/29/2010 at 8:50pm
| by Pulkit Chandna
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Private copying levies can have a divisive impact on a room full of people with some sense of technology and law. It is arguably one of the most hotly debated areas of copyright law. In case you need to brush up on your knowledge of copyright law, a private copying levy is generally imposed on the sale of storage media that can be used for copying copyrighted content. The proceeds are distributed among copyright owners as prevenient compensation for copying.
The debate is about to heat up as France is now ready to expand the purview of its private copying levy beyond recordable media and MP3 players. The government there is considering taxing all non-Windows tablets with more than 40GB of storage. Apparently, they feel there is a strong case for taxing tablets as they can be used for duplicating copyrighted content. Despite the majority view that tablets are part of the genus Computer, the French possess enough profundity to point to something that makes the two substantially dissimilar: Windows.
Let alone the fact that even computers running a desktop OS, and not just tablets, can be used for duplicating content, it is ludicrous how the new law exempts tablets running Windows as it treats them as full PCs.
According to French trade magazine Numerama, tablet vendor Archos isn’t too pleased by the lopsided nature of the proposed law and has threatened to join a lawsuit against the legislation. Contending that it lets users turn the company’s Android tablets into full PCs by letting them install Linux on them, the company wants its tablets to be exempt from the levy in much the same way as Windows-based slates.
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Ghok
April 07, 2011 at 11:10am
I don't actually mind the idea of supporting artists through giving them a cut of profits from the devices that will play their content. I actually like the idea. However, there is so much potential for abuse there... it seems to me that it would be really difficult to manage and make sure it's done fairly. The entertainment industry doesn't have a good track record here. Case in point, the fact that this only applies to non-windows tablets.
naxself
March 11, 2011 at 1:39pm
Laws that tax me for something I MIGHT do cannot possibly survive a court challenge. That's like making me pay a fine for the speeding ticket I MIGHT get.
Canada had a similar law on blank CDs for a while in the 1990s. I'm not sure if it's still enforced, though.
D00dlavy
February 07, 2011 at 10:21am
While I maintain tons of respect for French history and culture, that country has always had a shitty government, IMO. Downright f--king stupid. I live in the US and tend to follow policy in Australia, Canada and France. I could only live in Canada because I would feel oppressed and overtaxed in the other two.
For the record, I feel oppressed and overtaxed here, too. Just not as much.
F--k taxes on anything other than income.
Ghok
April 07, 2011 at 11:09am
We get taxed on a lot more than income here in Canada, friend :) I don't mind personally, but to many Americans it's something that can't really handle. I grew up with it, and I like government services, but that's just me.
Australia's policy is what weirds me out the most. I would feel so oppressed there.
TechLarry
December 30, 2010 at 2:36pm
I guess it's logged as the "Microsoft paid us a bundle for this law" law...
Righteous Fury
December 30, 2010 at 1:18pm
... it still sucks to be French; more on that at 11... over to you, Bob!
Synux
December 30, 2010 at 10:36am
If I understand this correctly the plan is to charge extra for each device sold and dispurse that revenue to copyright holders. So basically pre-paying damanges for the stealing you are assumed to be doing at some unspecified future date and in some unspecified way. That sounds fair and appropriate.
HeartBurnKid
December 30, 2010 at 3:02pm
Personally, if the US adopted such a levy, I'd pirate media as much and as often as I could. I'd hate to think I wasn't getting my money's worth out of the levy.
Synux
December 30, 2010 at 10:36am
If I understand this correctly the plan is to charge extra for each device sold and dispurse that revenue to copyright holders. So basically pre-paying damanges for the stealing you are assumed to be doing at some unspecified future date and in some unspecified way. That sounds fair and appropriate.
praetor_alpha
December 30, 2010 at 10:35am
Once again, the French government is completely retarded. I bet the French were the ones wanting Microsoft to replace IE with that retarded ballot thing.
Lhot
December 30, 2010 at 4:27am
....trying to "start a ball roling" to force people into the CLOUD :/ What's next, they, then the EU, then the U.S. gonna wanna tax my 1Gb HDD.
Storage doesn't steal songs and vidoes....people do. THIS is so utterly STUPID, that I'm going to go out and lay my head on the train tracks...a 250K ton train crushing my skull would hurt my head, less than this idiocy does.
"Taxation without reprensentation is tyranny" some wise person once said. :) Time for a Boston wine-party.....er...Riviera wine-party :D
Bullwinkle J Moose
December 30, 2010 at 1:22am
Security is key to this algorythm
Keep the tablet off the Internet and they can't tax jack diddly!
Just don't make them connect directly to the net
Now, give me a tablet that can control my desktop or rack computer in realtime so I can play crisis at 120fps over a compressed wireless display steam AND connect to the net through my desktop from my tablet and we'll talk...
Untill then..
Um, Deja Vu
Eoraptor
December 29, 2010 at 11:03pm
Yes, because declaring that pirated songs were wrth more in theft than all the money that exists on earth wasn't bad enough, now the industy needs to actually start muscling into "legitimate rackets"
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