German Patent Office Wants "Copyright Fee" On Every PC
from the wrong-direction... dept
Well, this is clearly going in the wrong direction. Apparently, folks in the German patent office think they can solve the issue of downloadable music by having computer makers charge a 12 euro per computer "copyright fee" to reimburse copyright holders who may have had their works shared. This is basically taking the surcharge that some countries charge on recordable media and applying it to computers as well. Intel very quickly came out with the expected statment saying that they felt this was a terrible idea.
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(Oh, and where do I send my fee to Xerox for the generic use of their trademark name for a copying machine, or does Techdirt have a general license to cover that. I don't want to get you good folks in trouble now.)
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