Chamber Against Fee On Computers and Mobile Phones
The Chamber of Commerce does not support the amendments to the Copyright Act initiated by members of the Parliament with the aim of establishing the so called empty cassette fee of up to 4 euros for computers, television sets, set-top boxes, mobile phones and other recording devices.
The empty cassette fee is a compensation for the owners of the rights of musical and cinematographic works (authors, performers, producers of phonograms) for allowing free copying of their works for personal use without the consent of the author. The obligation to pay the fee currently lays on importers and sellers.
At the moment the empty cassette fee is collected from, for example, CDs and DVDs, video cassettes, CD and DVD writers and video players. Due to the fact that people are no longer massively using CD records and video players, no compensation is collected for authors.
Empty cassette fee for new devices
To improve the situation, the persons who have prepared the draft wish to expand the list of recording devices that are subject to the fee. According to the plan, the list would be updated with computers, mobile telephones, television sets, set-top boxes, home cinema systems, gaming consoles, MP3/MP4 players, other audio or media players, car audio systems with recording, multimedia players, video tuners, satellite receivers and other portable data carriers.
In the Chamber’s opinion, the solution offered with the draft is not the most cost-efficient and fair method for paying a compensation to the authors, because it increases the administrative burden on entrepreneurs and infringes the sense of justice of people who do not use these devices for making copies or who have already paid a compensation to the authors for these copies.
Compensation could be paid to authors through the state budget
The Chamber proposed the Cultural Committee of the Parliament to include in the Copyright Act a principle according to which authors are paid a fair compensation through the state budget. Such solution allows for the most cost-efficient way of paying a compensation to the authors and would at the same time decrease administrative burden on entrepreneurs. At the moment, such compensation mechanism is used in Finland, Norway and Spain.