FC: Australia weighs taxing blank media: Writable CDs, DVDs, etc.

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: Stewart Maiden <maiden () vicbar com au>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Politech: proposed blank media levy in Australia
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 2003 07:40:38 +1100

Declan,
Australia's conservative (in all things but tax policy, where it is closer
to tax-and-spend socialist) federal government has been slapping new taxes
(called "levies") on us since it was elected in 1996.  Now the
entertainment content industry is calling for a NEW levy to offset the
losses it alleges it is suffering as a result of digital technology: on
blank media.  It's not clear who the levy would be paid to.
Fortunately, the Australian Consumers Authority has weighed into the debate
seeking a bit of quid pro quo -- as a condition for the imposition of the
levy, it seeks legislation protecting the right to copy for personal use,
unable to be overridden by contract or licensing conditions, and
authorisation for "circumvention devices" - the manufacture and sale of
which are currently prohibited under the Copyright Act.
The more things change, the more they stay the same - we had a similar
debate in relation to audio / video tapes, from memory.
Cheers
Stewart 




-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/
Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan
-------------------------------------------------------------------------