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http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/05/04/29/0537213.shtml?tid=176&tid=98

Dutch Pass iPod Tax
Media (Apple)
The Almighty Buck
Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday April 29, @03:05AM
from the pay-to-play dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Register is reporting that in a few short months a proposal to tax all MP3 players in the Netherlands will become law. The levy taxes 3.28 euros ($4.30 US) for every gigabyte of capacity. This means a 60GB iPod Photo will be hit for an additional 196 euros ($258), all of it going to the record industry's copyright collection agencies. And they call file sharers thieves?"

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/27/netherlands_ipod_tax/

Dutch plans for iPod tax could kill MP3 industry
By Faultline
Published Wednesday 27th April 2005 13:45 GMT

A Netherlands proposed tax on MP3 players could devastate sales of hard disk players, and set up international waves over copyright legislation.

The tax is being proposed by the Stichting Thuiskopie foundation, and is set to become law in the Netherlands in a few short months unless the European Commission finds a reason to intervene. It is unlikely that will happen, as it has failed to come up with a policy for levy taxation so far.

The idea of all levy based legislation is that some form of copyright collections agency collects tax by imposing a surcharge at the point of sale for any storage devices that could possibly be used to store pirated works. This certainly extends to the iPod which has up to 60 GB of storage, and which can store MP3 files.

Because of the fact that the great bulk of iPods are used to store legitimate iTunes files which are Digital Rights Management (DRM) protected, this means that copyright is being purchased twice over for these devices if a levy is also paid.

The charge will be levied against every MP3 player, and is effectively a tax on the MP3 format. Some efforts to place MP3 files under DRM protection will also mean that these will pay copyright twice over.

Levies are an outmoded and unfair way of rewarding existing monopolies and are only ever put in place to keep ancient publishing copyright agencies in business.

In almost every case the organization itself that carries out the collection is lavish and well funded, the proceeds are distributed only to large multinational music publishers, bolstering their revenues unfairly. It is little more than a club of companies that "have a right" to make money.

If this legislation comes into play, the surcharge will be as much as €3.28 ($4.3) per gigabyte. This might put €180 ($235) to the price of a top end iPod.

Already in Germany there is a levy on PC hard drives, that will soon become larger than the entire PC industry revenue if it is left in place. Within two years, as disk drive sizes move to terabyte class on notebooks, and petabyte levels on home DVRs, the tax will come to far outweigh not just the cost of the drive, but the cost of the device. Under this Netherlands law, if it were extended to the PC, the cost of 1,000 GB would be €3,280 ($4,300) and yet drives of this size will be delivered by 2007.

The only way to bypass this law in the Netherlands might be to tweak iPods and other players to only accept alternative formats that are always protected by DRM, but that would mean that only iPod (with AAC) and Sony devices (with ATRAC) could have any sales and we're not sure that would satisfy the new law as we don't yet know how it is going to be worded.

Or the Dutch could just become a nation without iPods. I wonder how happy that would make them?

Copyright © 2005, Faultline

 

[warhead]

As a Dutchie I say WTF? That passed already? Can't be... I can't find anything about it on the primary newssources here, I even asked the people next to me (who make radio news) and they didn't knew it passed either. So it's just an idea so far and knowing our government the chance that it will pass is very small. We come up with a lot of stupid ideas here.

 

[mrklaw]

I call bullshit. Maybe $5 per unit, but not per gigabyte. Thats just crazy. Charge me for letting me listen to my CDs that I have bought already? And 90% of music on ipods is peoples CDs.

I know there was a levy on 'audio' CDs, but then people just buy data ones.

 

[The Bookerman]

For fucks sake, why didn't they pass a law against CD players then?

That law makes no sense. Somebody over there should challenge that law into court.

 

[warhead]

And 90% of music on ipods is peoples CDs.

Not over here

I know there was a levy on 'audio' CDs, but then people just buy data ones.

You're paying extra taxes on every empty portable storage medium, cd's, dvd's, tapes, minidiscs etc

 

[warhead]

For fucks sake, why didn't they pass a law against CD players then?

That law makes no sense. Somebody over there should challenge that law into court.

You can't store music on a CD player. You're already paying for empty cd's you use to burn your mp3's on etc

 

[Ecrofirt]

Haha, the Dutch are idiots. :lol :lol

 

[warhead]

Haha, the Dutch are idiots. :lol :lol

Like your country is so great. Every country has dumb fools that say or do stupid shit. This law hasn't even passed so shut up till it does, wich it won't.

 

[norinrad21]

I'm so pissed of about this law i have recently decided to get an ipod and pay the monthly 14 euros on that thing. I can't afford a full price so am going to the monthly payment option.

Fucking thieves, i think theres even a TAX on urine :lol

 

[Hooker]

Buy one abroad, and get rid of all the packaging. When going through customs say you've had it for months/years.



It's what I do with my stuff when I go on vacation. (You have to be careful that with saying how long you've had it for. As they check model number of the date they released them

 

[DCharlie]

given this is my previous job, i won't even begin to try to describe how retarded this is. For shame, Dutch collection agency!

oh , no , actually i'll play

1) is this mechanical or performance charge?
2) if it's mechanical, then how can you recollect royalties on a legit digital copy of the original?
3) if it's performance, then you are fucking retarded
4) how can you possibly prorate without knowledge of what songs are uploaded? What? you will use CD sales? but YOU'VE ALREADY GATHERED MECHANICAL RIGHTS FROM THOSE, you can't gather them twice! unless...
5) ... you are counting an upload at a lower bit rate as a second recording, therefore the loophole in the law is : upload at the exact same lenght and bit rate - it's the same unaltered copy, therefore, they can't take shit... unless...
6) they want to be arseholes... and it sounds like they are being.
7) shmoke and a pancake?

 

[norinrad21]

Buy one abroad, and get rid of all the packaging. When going through customs say you've had it for months/years.



It's what I do with my stuff when I go on vacation. (You have to be careful that with saying how long you've had it for. As they check model number of the date they released them

hehehe thats what i do when i buy stuff outside the country.

Seriously we do come up with some shitty ideas in this country. :lol

oh well we did pave the way to allow gays to get married and now its spreading across the continent, most countries pretty much hate our laws

Heck people call us a superpimb state for our lovely entertainment industry

 

[mrklaw]

given this is my previous job, i won't even begin to try to describe how retarded this is. For shame, Dutch collection agency!

oh , no , actually i'll play

1) is this mechanical or performance charge?
2) if it's mechanical, then how can you recollect royalties on a legit digital copy of the original?
3) if it's performance, then you are fucking retarded
4) how can you possibly prorate without knowledge of what songs are uploaded? What? you will use CD sales? but YOU'VE ALREADY GATHERED MECHANICAL RIGHTS FROM THOSE, you can't gather them twice! unless...
5) ... you are counting an upload at a lower bit rate as a second recording, therefore the loophole in the law is : upload at the exact same lenght and bit rate - it's the same unaltered copy, therefore, they can't take shit... unless...
6) they want to be arseholes... and it sounds like they are being.
7) shmoke and a pancake?

Calm down dear, its just a levy.

 

[aoi tsuki]

Haha, the Dutch are idiots. :lol :lol

Umm...

 

[Ecrofirt]

Like your country is so great. Every country has dumb fools that say or do stupid shit. This law hasn't even passed so shut up till it does, wich it won't.

Wahhhhmbulance alert.

Cry me a river, dutchie. Our country may be fucked up, but at least we're not taxing MP3 players by the gigabyte

Umm...

Yes, both Bush and Olimario are idiots, if that's what you're getting at?

 

[mrklaw]

Wahhhhmbulance alert.

Cry me a river, dutchie. Our country may be fucked up, but at least we're not taxing MP3 players by the gigabyte

Hey, any country thats designed not to have any hills is pretty smart to me.

 

[warhead]

Our country may be fucked up, but at least we're not taxing MP3 players by the gigabyte

I'd rather pay taxes on my MP3 player and get free healthcare, being (legally) able to get alcohol everywhere I want since I turned 16, get quality weed and hash without problems and not risk the chance to be shot in the street because someone feels intimidated by me (what up Jed Bush!)

 

[Hooker]

You forgot fornicating with underage girls!!!

 

[SFA_AOK]

It's not passed yet, looks like it will be though.

 

[Nerevar]

You forgot fornicating with underage girls!!!

:lol

this pissing match between the Dutch and American activist is actually quite funny.

 

[Freestyler]

Think I'll be siding with the Americans on this one. Apple (in California) did of course actually invent the iPod, and now the Dutch wanna tax the things?!

I can't see Apple taking this lightly. Here's hoping they stop shipping all units to the Netherlands

 

[miyuru]

Jesus it's not just fucking iPods, it's all mp3 players.

I hate all these taxes. Record companies are making more money with piracy than they were without.

 

[nitewulf]

better buy your ipods now before it's too late.

 

[Diablos]

Uh, wow, that's fucking ridiculous.

 

[Shinobi]

On the bright side, you can still legally sollict a hooker...