(originally posted on
October
24, 2010)
The
European Court of Justice has ruled that the private copying levies on blank
CDs, MP3 players and other digital media are permitted under EU copyright law
in respect of goods sold to consumers, but not for any products which a company
may buy.
The
position currently in Europe is that some European countries permit the a
person who legitimately owns a copyright work to make a copy of it, as long as
it is for private use. The new European Copyright Directive will continue to
allow this, as long as there is ‘fair compensation’ for the copyright holders.
In those
countries where private copying is permitted, the way it works is that a levy
is charged on the media – discs, media players – that material is typically
copied on to, in order to ensure fair compensation. That levy is then sent to
collection societies for distribution to rights holders.
As it can
reasonably be assumed that any blank media purchased by a consumer will be used
for copying, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that this levy is
compatible with EU copyright law when charged on goods sold to consumers. It
has also directed that the levy should not be charged when items are sold to
businesses, because that assumption cannot be made.
The
ruling is largely in line with an opinion published earlier this year by one of
the ECJ’s Advocates General. The European Commission said last year that it
wanted to end the situation where private copying was legal in some EU
countries and not in others. The Commission said in a statement that it wanted
to give “consumers certainty about what they can and cannot do with
copyrighted songs, videos and films they download, by ending the current
fragmentation of laws on ‘private copying’“.
© Brian Miller 2012. This article may not be reproduced without the prior written permission of the author.
This article reflects the current law and practice. It is general in
nature, and does not purport in any way to be comprehensive or a
substitute for specialist legal advice in individual circumstances.
Brian may be contacted at Stone King Solicitors, via his Data Protection & Privacy Blog or Computer Games Blog.
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