European Commission Consulting on Copyright Levy

Under the Copyright Directive, EU member states were given a choice: either allow private copying and give 'fair compensation' to rights holders or ban private copying. Most European countries (except 5 member states) allowed copying of music for private use. These countries add a levy to the cost of items which are likely to be used to make private copies.

The Commission is now consulting with industry so that it can change the laws around this 'copyright levy' to suit the world of digital copying. An initiative on copyright levies is in the commission work program 2006. The additional follow-up consultation focuses on a series of salient points and will run from 6 June to 14 July 2006.

The commission sought to address the issue by posing various questions from several aspects, which also indicted the possible changes in the new law:

• the efficiency of applying the levy to equipment or media that consumers use, rather than the party that carries out and controls the private copying
• the necessity and the way of improving the accountability of collecting societies with respect to the application, collection and distribution of copyright
• the distribution of levies among right owners
• the efficiency of current copyright levy system with regard to the development of digital sales in Europe
• copyright levies and the notion of harm based on private copying
• the criteria for establishing whether a levy is imposed on particular equipment or media
• the phenomenon of convergence and copy right levies. It pointed out that levies that were applied to photocopies or cassette decks are being increasingly deployed on digital equipment, multifunction devices such as personal computers, hard disks and even printers
• the internal market and differences in copyright levy systems
• opinions from several sectors that are affected by copyright levies such as rights holders, collecting societies, the record and film industries, the ICT industry, consumers of digital equipment and /or blank media.

In the consultation document, the commission stated that in the digital media world "it would no longer be possible to hold only liable the manufacturers or importers of equipment and media. The logic of levies would also have to be applied to broadband and infrastructure service providers including telecommunications providers that carry content." This statement may indicate the possibility to impose copyright levy on ISPs in the future. However the commission also recognized that clarifying the complex situation is not an easy task, and it may cause "a serious risk of a backlash against the rights holder community and consumer welfare".

Link:
The consultation paper is available at
http://www.ec.europa.eu/internal_market/copyright/docs/levy_reform/stakeholder_consultation_en.pdf

By Yue Liu, NRCCL, Oslo, Norway