German Patent Office Wants "Copyright Fee" On Every PC
from the wrong-direction... dept
Well, this is clearly going in the wrong direction. Apparently, folks in the German patent office think they can solve the issue of downloadable music by having computer makers charge a 12 euro per computer "copyright fee" to reimburse copyright holders who may have had their works shared. This is basically taking the surcharge that some countries charge on recordable media and applying it to computers as well. Intel very quickly came out with the expected statment saying that they felt this was a terrible idea.
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Quid pro quo
Yeah, it seems like a lousy idea. But, let's look at it from a market/contract point of view. A fee charged on PCs (or tapes, or CDs, etc.), and in return, no basis for copyright infringement, piracy prosecution, etc. (It's this second part that is missing from all current "tax the medium" schemes.) Take the BSA out of software license enforcement, the RIAA out of file trading, the MPAA out of movie file trading, etc. Sure, they'll want a higher fee than anybody else thinks is reasonable, but this could be a step toward the "new business model" that is commonly asserted to be necessary.
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I propose adding a fee to the sale of all paper, pencils, pens and xerox machines to re-imburse copyright holders for these and other burglary tools of intellectual property.
(Oh, and where do I send my fee to Xerox for the generic use of their trademark name for a copying machine, or does Techdirt have a general license to cover that. I don't want to get you good folks in trouble now.)
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