France has copied a German initiative making it the second EU
country to demand royalties from sales of high-tech hardware to
compensate musicians and film makers for copyright piracy,
according to a report in Reuters.
Sales of CD-Rs (recordable CDs) and DVDs will be taxed from 22nd
January according to France’s Culture Minister, Catherine Tasca.
Other equipment expected to become subject to the tax includes
computers, hard disks, DVD players, next-generation mobile phones
and CD writers.
Reuters reports that a sliding scale will be used to calculate
the tax based on the time or memory capacity of the devices.
While many countries, including France and Germany, have similar
laws to protect authors and musicians, these have to date targeted
only tape recorders and video players. Towards the end of last
year, Germany took the step of extending this protection into the
“digital age” by taxing sales of modern devices that make for easy
copying and transferring of copyright-protected material.
Inevitably, the proposals in Germany and France have been met
with fierce industry opposition. The concern is that manufacturers
will lose out to foreign competitors and the possible solution will
be for them to move their operations to other countries.
