Royalty Collection Agency SABAM Sued By Belgian Government Over 'Piracy License' Plans
from the getting-a-clue dept
Back in May, we wrote about how the Belgian music royalty collection agency SABAM was taking ISPs there to court over its demand for 3.4% of Internet subscriber fees as "compensation" for online piracy in Belgium. In yet another slapdown for SABAM -- it had previously failed in its attempt to turn ISPs into copyright cops -- the Belgian regulator says SABAM's plan falls foul of the EU's e-commerce directive, as IT World reports:
the Belgian government's FPS Economy (Federal Public Service Economy) agency, which has regulatory power, believes that Sabam is wrongly asking providers for compensation, said Chantal De Pauw, an agency spokeswoman.
Even more dramatically, FPS is taking legal action against SABAM to stop it proceeding with its own lawsuit:
While the FPS opposes any kind of illegal downloading, Sabam's solution penalizes Internet users and this is against the E.U.'s e-commerce directive, according to the authority. Providing Internet access is not the same as publishing protected works, the FPS said in a news release, adding that there are other ways to fight illegal downloads than posing levies on ISPs.The FPS has ordered Sabam to stop its lawsuit, but the association has argued that they are operating within the bounds of the law, said De Pauw. FPS has therefore decided to sue Sabam in October to force it to stop its legal procedures against the ISPs, De Pauw said. If FPS wins the suit, Sabam faces penalties of up to €100,000 (US$137,600) per day if it continues its quest, she added.
SABAM has always been frustratingly out-of-touch with reality in its demands, but now that it is being sued by its own government, perhaps it will finally take the hint and drop its ridiculous and unjustified scheme.
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Filed Under: belgium, isps, piracy license, secondary liability
Companies: sabam
Reader Comments
The First Word
“Cashier: Your bill is $100, plus $6 sales tax, plus $3.40 theft tax.
Me: Theft tax?
Cashier: You and other customers must be thieves, we only pay our supplies for the stuff in our stores after it's sold. So the theft tax goes directly to our suppliers to pay for shop lifted goods.
Me: How about I charge you an expiration tax for all that milk I bought last week that expired before I could drink it?
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Even if they'd be trustful (don't laugh!) distribution must go through a bunch of sketchy speculations on what owned to whom.
Let the artists monetize themselves what they can, and leave alone what they can't. My guess is they would be better off anyway.
No trumped up levies on everything remotely connected to transmitting art, thank you..
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Here's an idea:
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Give em hell Belgian
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How do such levies help to fight illegal downloads unless they are raised to such an extent that they force people off the Internet. Doing so would also destroy the ISPs business. I suppose they could be used to fund lawsuits, which to be effective would have to tie up the courts with millions of lawsuits, so that downloaders realise that a lawsuit is inevitable, rather than just a low chance lottery event it is at the moment.
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My impression has always been that they won't - but that's probably not the point. In fact, any blanket tax on the assumption you're a pirate will in fact encourage people to do it even more - how can it be immoral to pirate if you're being charged for doing so whether or not you've done it? Might as well download a few albums, get your money's worth...
No, this is really about creating revenue for the major labels who can't compete in the modern world. No indie label is going to see a penny, the money will just be funnelled to the major corporations.
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Also, while they're pretending it's supposed to be to fight piracy and help the artists, the odds of a single cent actually making it to an artist is non-existent, given such agencies seem to have a wicked time actually paying the artists even with the money specifically collected for them.
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Cashier: Your bill is $100, plus $6 sales tax, plus $3.40 theft tax.
Me: Theft tax?
Cashier: You and other customers must be thieves, we only pay our supplies for the stuff in our stores after it's sold. So the theft tax goes directly to our suppliers to pay for shop lifted goods.
Me: How about I charge you an expiration tax for all that milk I bought last week that expired before I could drink it?
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Greedy asshats
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