Source: PC Inpact
The hot topic of private copying in France and how it is managed is still in the news.It is now several weeks since the manufacturers refused to serve on the Albis commission which is responsible to fix the surcharge.
The digital rights owners seemed to have the idea of officially taking decisions unilaterally, but a few words from the Prime Minister last week put them in a cold sweat: "The decision making process in respect of remuneration for private copying needs to be addressed in order to have an objective and transparent procedure ".
Taking advantage of this proposal, manufacturers suddenly took interest and made proposals for reforming this "institution".
In essence, they focused their requests on two points:
-- They accept a broadening of the tax base if they obtain in exchange a significant drop in the levy on each product, and especially its calculation based on the value of the product and not the capacity,an obsolete metric -- a single audio/video file could see its size vary by a factor of more than 10 depending on its encoding format.
-- More troublesome for rights owners, manufacturers want this fee passed not by a committee but by the parliament.
Knowing they no longer have the wind in their sails the rights owners will certainly be forced to release the ballast, if they want to maintain adequate financial return. They will be more quick to do so to try to prevent private copying being challenged in court. A defeat would put them in a very delicate position.
