Filed under: Odds and ends
French courts require foreign vendors to remind customers about 'iPod tax'
A French court has ruled that online retailers shipping music players to addresses in France must warn the customer that they will have to pay the "iPod tax" once the device arrives in the country.
France enacted a levy designed to compensate copyright holders to the tune of €40 per device for illegal file copying. French retailers roll the levy into their price, making vendors outside France more attractive, price-wise. The levy applies to music players, USB storage, and blank media.
While the warning is now necessary, it's no guarantee that the tax will be paid.
The UK, Canada and Japan have all considered or tried a similar fee, but all have failed for one reason or another.
[Via The Register.]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Polo said 3:52PM on 12-02-2008
It is not exactly right. The fee is not for illegal copying, but for legal one. It does not allow us to download everything, just to make "private copies". For example thanks to it we can copy a CD on our iPod, or even a CD of a friend (it is private). And the fee is not necessary of €40, every blank media are taxed (hard drives, CDs and DVDs, but also cell phone that can play music ...) depending on its capacity and use.
Of course I am sorry for my english, but you now how french people are ... ;-)
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bill cant fart said 4:15PM on 12-02-2008
"but you now how french people are"
...Stinky?
Mr Lizard said 4:07AM on 12-03-2008
A copy for private use is considered legal under 'fair use policiy' and therefore an additional tax should not be required.
Unfortunately the French government bent over for the music industry just the like US government frequently does.
dc said 7:34PM on 12-03-2008
pretty good english.
AlphaBob said 10:56PM on 12-02-2008
USB storage media ?!? OMFG.
So much for cheap file storage.
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Radu Dutzan said 4:13PM on 12-02-2008
What? I can't believe the French people actually allowed their government to do this to them. I truly thought they were passionate about justice and freedom, and would not sit around when music labels, or anybody, came to legally steal their hard-earned money under a pretty lousy excuse.
An extra tax on almost anything that will hold data only to gain the right to make "private copies" of the content you already bought? Oh, the humanity. This is almost worse than DRM.
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Polo said 4:29PM on 12-02-2008
Thanks to this fee, private copies can be made with every CD, every DVD of all your friends. Even copies af a rent film are legal. So it is not so bad.
Of course there are lot of problems with this : what about people buying CDs for saving pictures of holidays ?
In fact, what I told you just above is the official version. It is clear that this tax compensate piracy. the subject is very complicated, there situation often changes, and nobody knows whether the tax will remain unchanged, increase or be removed.
Ron said 4:24PM on 12-02-2008
Actually, there was an iPod tax in Canada. It was struck down in court a while after it was enacted.
I know, because I had to pay $25 levy when I bought an iPod a couple of years ago.
Here's a reference to it:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2003/12/13/canada_oks_p2p_music_downloads/
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Ashwin said 4:36PM on 12-02-2008
How could the French government be so stupid. Thank god I don't live in France. I could just as easily put pirated music on a Zune or Sansa as I do on an iPod. This is just as dumb as forcing Microsoft to issue versions of Windows without Windows Media Player.
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Ayle said 1:50AM on 12-03-2008
The tax is applied to all mp3 players, not just iPods....
Michel said 3:36AM on 12-03-2008
"Windows without Windows Media Player" it was from the european parliament.
Maurice said 4:39PM on 12-02-2008
Don't twist your mind. When it is about tax, nobody in the world can beat France !!
When I buy a CD, I pay for it, ok. But then, I copy it in iTunes, I pay a second time because I paid a tax on the hard drive. Then, I make a copy on a writable CD to take it safely in my car, I pay a third time because there is a tax on each blank CD. Finally, I transfer the songs on my iPhone and I pay a fourth time because there was a tax on my iPhone when I bought it. Isn't this lovely ????
And then, our president, who married a singer, don't understand why we complain about not having enough money .......
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David said 4:56PM on 12-02-2008
Maurice, I'm an American who lives part of the year in Paris. I get my service from Free, which is great, but I was wondering if you had an opinion of the "three strikes and you're out rule" for illegal downloading. That is, although the European Parliament said that it's illegal, Sarkozy et al are planning to revoke Internet privileges for anyone caught downloading illegally three times. What do you think is going to happen?
By the way, I've brought back gadgets such as iPods on a number of occasions for my French friends. They're much cheaper in the US, even setting aside currency conversion issues.
(01) said 5:18PM on 12-02-2008
Wow, I can''t wait to see this tax imposed on DVD players and video game consoles to combat piracy. Oh wait, that will never happen...
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Piro said 5:30PM on 12-02-2008
We French, allowed our governement to do so because we, French are stupid. We make laws and laws and laws and we never respect them, considering it's better to give the entire worlds lessons about this and that. Because, making SOOOO many laws and putting such a asshole in charge of the country makes us kinda better than anyone.
Good thing im part Italian... Oh no... they have the other side of the Asshole we have...
Damn..
What about Mars ? Do they have DSL broadband up there ?
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Frankie said 9:09PM on 12-02-2008
Piro, I feel (like during the Worlds Championships) we defeat France:
our country is governed by the Asshole King and we got way more stupid laws than France! ^_^ btw we too pay the "memory support tax" on CDs and HDs.
I imagine that EU will state that France can not force foreign shops to put any message...
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Bassir said 6:23PM on 12-02-2008
All these countries trying to copy the United States just end up practicing pseudo-capitalism and pseudo-democracy. There's no democracy, or capitalism behind this.
Yeah... and people say the United States sucks. God bless America.
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Moyse said 3:27AM on 12-03-2008
Bassir, I really don't think there's any need to bring the US into this (apart from the fact that if you know your history, neither capitalism nor democracy are American inventions)
mlk said 3:37AM on 12-03-2008
France is not the only country whose parliament passed a levy law on mp3 players, mobile phones –mp3 capable–, and any storage device.
Spain also has such levy and it is called «the canon».
When it was first proposed by the SGAE (stands for General Society of Spanish Authors) both main parties supported it and took it to the Parliament to make it a law.
When it reached the news and the people, the controversy started and «anti-canon» societies and individual voices sprung all over the country (you just check the internet). But besides that, there was nothing the people could do. The biggest anti-canon society even met the President Zapatero as representing a widespread opinion, but they were finally dismissed.
I don't think Spanish or French peoples are stupid as somebody posted above. Maybe their governments. And the real ones to blame are those who promote piracy.
As the Spanish idiom says:
«Siempre pagan justos por pecadores»
(«Fair people always pay for the sinners»)
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Michel said 3:51AM on 12-03-2008
it's the same than TVA : tax on value, when you buy stuff in Europa. The foreigner seller has to inform the buyer.
it's the same thing here
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there are already talks to tax ONLINE storage.
of course videogame console will be taxed
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democracy and capitalism are not only american and never was there first.
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america has the mighty powerful FCC, not so "capitalist"
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the actual french government is really scary for me (I'm french), but it was a tendency for years to try to tax everything new.
you see, the main problem is governments are trying to protect old ways to make money with cultural goods. not to promote new ones.
ho! and itunes movies store in France is crappy empty (well.. there are some new local show.. this month)
and americans hate us : no mp3 amazon outside the U.S.
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the reinforcement of copyright laws to only the benefits of the right-holder (not the artist, not the public) is a bad issue in U.S.
it was explained as "mickey laws" : every time mickey should be in public domain, new laws and bills was written and passed to prevent that.
when copyright is totally all-powerful and last more and more longer, it's no more "capitalism".
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you think it's only about France ? no.
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