Blank Media 'Pirate Tax' Used To Fund New 'Pirate' Album
from the giving-back dept
Many countries have a "blank media levy," which is basically a tax on any kind of blank media on the assumption that some percentage of the blank media bought is used to make unauthorized copies of music. This is pretty ridiculous for a variety of reasons -- most notably the assumption that everyone is breaking the law and needs to pay a tax to a single industry that is unwilling (though not unable) to adjust its business model. However, in Sweden, one musician who started receiving his "royalties" from such a blank media levy was so offended by the concept that he decided the only way to pay the money back was to use the money to fund a new "Pirate Album" using samples and clips from other musicians, put together to make totally new songs -- and then release the whole thing on The Pirate Bay. He's using the album to highlight how ridiculous it is to forbid others from making new derivative creative works built on the works of others. If only more musicians would realize that all creativity is built on the works of those who came before, and pretending that the line stops with you is a mistake.
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Filed Under: media levy, pirate tax, sampling, sweden
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That's a tazing
For sure - this is going to end well.
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That would be silly indeed, but what if the levy is used to AUTHORIZE copies of music, like it is done in Canada and the Netherlands?
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I don't know about the situation in Canada, but last I heard, in the Netherlands downloading (and subsequent burning onto a blank media) of any kind of content is legal in its own right. So they don't need a levy to authorize anything.
Besides, why should I have to pay a levy to make a backup copy (or rather, a work-copy so I can keep the original as a backup) of something I own when this is my right as owner/buyer of a plastic disc with whatever content on it
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I look forward to the day when Pirate Bay is ground into the dirt where it definitely belongs.
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Economic theory aside, whatever happened to the concept of the law defining a social contract?
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serious reply: Economic theory aside. What do you mean economic theory aside??? Patent, copyright,... although the original idea was to further science and society, since then has obviously become a strictly economical vehicle. So economics is the only aspect you can't put aside. Your social contract on the other hand is one of the things that are irrelevant...
not so serious reply: maybe the concept of the law defining a social contract got ground into the dirt when you guys tried prohibition and people kept drinking?
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re:Anon Cow
Vapid troll.
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and
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cd/dvd almost obsolete
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Re: cd/dvd almost obsolete
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Sounds like a back fire idea to me. its almost like pre-paying for the downloaded music
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Hard drives, too?
If they are taxing HDs, then we can always go to the clouds. In that scenario, I can imagine a lot of cloud storage services based in places like Sweden.
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Re: Hard drives, too?
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consequences of levy
The reasons are obvious, one of which is: people who do not use these media to make infringing copies of content have to pay this ridiculous levy (what ever happened to better 10 guilty people go free,...)
BUT: those countries should be consistent: you tax/levy something, whatever you tax/levy should be legal...
Taxing something illegal is just ridiculous.
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Can that work at all
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