Apple, Nokia, Motorola agree negotiation of European 'iPod levy'

Jonny Evans
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May 26, 2008
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Consumers purchasing iPods, iPhones, Macs and an array of similar consumer electronic devices, including VHS and DVD recorders, may soon be required to pay a Europe-wide levy on every sale.

Led by music industry groups, rights-holders in Europe have been pressing local lawmakers and consumer electronic device makers to agree to such a tax. They want money raised through this levy to be distributed to rights-holders.

Today’s news is that consumer electronic companies - after stiff resistance to such proposals - may now be willing to declare a truce in these negotiations, in order to find a mutually satisfactory solution.

Consumer electronics companies including Nokia, Apple and Sony have contacted regulators at the European Commission to that effect.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo, chief executive of Nokia, and Greg Brown, chief executive of Motorola, are among the signatories of a letter to the European Commission saying that they are willing to “explore new ways forward” in a dispute that has been in deadlock since the 1960s, reports the Financial Times.

The levy is intended to compensate content creators for losses they face as a result of private copying of their material. Apple, Nokia and Motorola now reportedly say they would be willing to accept such surcharges, so long as they are set at the same level across Europe. Differing levels of levy are applied on sales of such devices across the majority of the European Union states.

More here.

 

 

Comments (13)

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 3:37pm

sucks for europe! ha

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 4:14pm

o mi gosh!
luckly it's not as bad as the patrioct act

ha!

Michael Kontaxis (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 4:42pm

Proud to be an American... except I'd pay a tax any day to get your internet speeds.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 4:48pm

This is ludacris as we (in the UK) are currently paying high enough taxes to afford anything here, especially in the electronics and digital department. And now you bastards want more? This will only increase the number of people importing goods to evade taxes which again, you do not want. So why are you doing this in the first place?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 4:58pm

I wonder if it ever occurs to these yahoos that having been levied a tax (the gov will always get its cut), many a consumer will feel unconscionable about copying anything and everything to his heart's content?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 5:32pm

this is wonderful! if i buy a new ipod in the eu with the levy, then i can LEGALLY use it for piracy! what an idea!

seriously if this is where it's going to be, soon no one will be buying the original copies because no idiot's gonna pay twice!!!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 6:06pm

If this tax is implemented then they can forget about me paying for any music or movies until the tax is revoked.

The greed of these morons never fails to amaze me.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 10:13pm

on the bright side.... it would be now legal to download free music from torrents as you are already paying taxes. To top it off... you would be dumb not to!

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | May 26, 2008 - 11:35pm

so this tax would penalize the ones who buy there music legally either on CD or from iTunes? like a previous poster said it would mean we can legally pirate music! just another money grabbing scheme from the record labels i think who obviously don't care if you legally buy your music just want more £!

blip (not verified) | May 27, 2008 - 2:24am

So technically this means that after I've pruchased an iPod or what not I'll have even *less* money to legally buy music for? That's great. As usual the ones who pay gets shafted. Now tell me why I *shouldn't* just download my music for free?

Here in Europe (read: at least in Sweden) a new CD is about 30USD because all the music labels spend their money on is PR, PR and PR to sell the utter crap that is called "main stream" music today.

If there wasn't a company like Apple, Amazon et al who sell music online the music industry would probably grind to a halt in a not too distant future. They are at least 10 years behind when it comes to distribution, won't look at the demographic, and still see direct online purchase of music as an *alternative* way? When people's grandmother are downloading music illegaly the music business needs to take a sceond look at their ways of distribution.

The vinyl turned to CD turned to directly purchased files over our dear internet. Not that the music business knows about that.

And why is it that groups/independent labels like Sonarkollektiv.com have prices about half of what the shitty half-an-hour-to-make releases that the big labels sell cost me? Because, again, big labels spend their money on PR ot music. Sonarkollektiv and other independents like music and try to find interesting music which is why they have a following.

There was a Swedish comedian singing about how anything could be sold with "murderous" pr and commercials. This has never been more true.

tilsammans (not verified) | May 27, 2008 - 3:16am

Quite simply this means downloading music from torrents will be legal and I will never 'buy' a song from iTunes again. I have just bought a new iMac and transferring the music to the new computer was easy, but still painful. Apparently I have no control over the stuff I bought? Screw that, this is basically forcing me into the p2p/torrent area and with this tax it's even legal. Bring it!

LinkeSocke (not verified) | May 27, 2008 - 9:39am

Sorry dudes.
This is wrong.

A) This is a fake rumor
B) No music or data (disk) provider would accept that)
C) If, you wouldn´t be allowed to download illegally, even if you pay more :D

Jonny Evans | May 27, 2008 - 10:22am

 The Financial Times is infrequently wrong.