Blank Media 'Pirate Tax' Used To Fund New 'Pirate' Album

from the giving-back dept

Tue, Jun 17th 2008 8:24pm — Mike Masnick

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

24 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 8:32pm

That's a tazing
"use the money to fund a new "Pirate Album" using samples and clips from other musicians,"

For sure - this is going to end well.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 8:43pm

"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."

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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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2008 @ 9:32pm

Sounds like idiots are a worldwide phenomena, with some having emigrated to Sweden.

I look forward to the day when Pirate Bay is ground into the dirt where it definitely belongs.
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Jason (profile), 17 Jun 2008 @ 11:14pm

re:Anon Cow
I look forward to the day...

Vapid troll.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 12:43am

Re:
Why, because Sweden, where The Pirate Bay is located has different laws than the US dealing with copyright?
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Fsm, 18 Jun 2008 @ 1:27am

Re:
And I look forward to the day when your mother is ravaged and burned alive, you corporate ass-kissing fuck.
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bitSeq, 18 Jun 2008 @ 2:38am

I think what he has done is brilliant, the music industry has it coming to them! Did we not have the same issues when radio came about? and then the cassette? etc..
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mike allen, 18 Jun 2008 @ 4:35am

and
I look forward to the day when the major record lables implode on themselves
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 6:06am

Re:
Semantics, nothing more. You're still treating everyone as though they were going to break the law, you're just making it "OK" because you're taxing them. What if I don't download movies but I use blank CDs for any other of the many, many uses they have? It's a dumb idea no matter how it's spun.
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tubes, 18 Jun 2008 @ 6:29am

Re:
I guess you are one of the biggest worldwide idiots! I think you belong grounded into the dirt! You don't get it, when you get rid of one company 10 more pop up in its place. Do you think Pirate Bay is the way to get pirated material? If you ask me its the worst way to get pirated materials but that's another topic.
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 6:29am

cd/dvd almost obsolete
anything i use now is digital format for back-up... from usb sticks to e-sata drives (mini-ones made for laptop) i can easily store hundreds of GB easier, transport easier, no scratching issues so, let'em tax away something that's getting way to obsolete, btw.. when they gonna start taxing usb-sticks/external+internal hdd etc ... ??? now a days this i think is the main back-up for most of us ... faster, more compact, more efficient... and getting way cheaper by day ...
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 7:09am

Re: Re:
No, I do "get it". A pirate site is closed down and a bunch of others step up to replace them. Even so, I believe that because people are prone to violate the law is no good reason to discard the law.

Economic theory aside, whatever happened to the concept of the law defining a social contract?
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 8:58am

Re: cd/dvd almost obsolete
I don't think you know what you are talking about when you say that cd/dvd almost obsolete and yet you state "anything i use now is digital format for back-up..."
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 9:02am

An added tax for using blank media?
Sounds like a back fire idea to me. its almost like pre-paying for the downloaded music
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Jason, 18 Jun 2008 @ 9:53am

Re: Re: Re:
Whatever happened to the...social contract? RIAA bought it out and added their standard fine print.
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Jason, 18 Jun 2008 @ 10:06am

Hard drives, too?
If not, then they're missing the real "violators." CDs, DVDs, etc are on the way out. The heavy I don't keep ANY of my legal backup copies on optical media - it's all on a home server that handles all my music, movies, and the like.

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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Jason, 18 Jun 2008 @ 10:07am

Re: Hard drives, too?
Oops s/b "The heavy users don't use CDs & DVDs."
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Anonymous Coward, 18 Jun 2008 @ 12:40pm

Re: Re:
What an incredibly insightful comment.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jun 2008 @ 4:27am

hay if we are paying the levy then we are paying for the music we "steel" so its ok to do it! we are paying them for it right... so piret all you want just burn it to dvd and cd and its all good!
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jun 2008 @ 4:29am

Re:
** steal (sorry english is not my first language)
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Sailor Ripley, 24 Jun 2008 @ 6:35am

Re:
Eum...

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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Sailor Ripley, 24 Jun 2008 @ 6:42am

Re: Re: Re:
This is just hilarious...

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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Anonymous Coward, 24 Jun 2008 @ 6:50am

consequences of levy
I think any kind of levy on storage media (I purposely did not put blank media, as there are plenty of countries considering (or having considered) to also put a levy on mp3players, hard drives, usb sticks,...) is ridiculous...

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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Wolfgang, 7 Aug 2008 @ 11:42am

Can that work at all
Does the phrase "innocent until proven guilty" not mean anything anymore?
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