Strong smell of greed here. http://torrentfreak.com/uks-legalization-of-cd-ripping-is-unlawful-court-rules-150619/
So when this happens, if it happens we can expect the price of hdd's etc to jump up since we know how much the UK government which ever party is in power likes to rip us off with taxes. Quoted from the article The problem I see with the tax being added is, why should people who are not keeping copies of music on there pc's etc and have a digital library of paid for music from the likes of iTunes be penalised when they need some blank media for none, media like backups etc.
It's a nice racket, isn't it? "We're taxing you for products that you might use in a way that mightcause us loss of commercial income."
But think of all those poor, hard-done-by pop-stars, don't you want to give them more ofl your money, so they can have considerably more money than you?
but its not the musicians who get this, its the music "industry". these are the idiots who ignore statistics like people who download buy 10x more music than the general population old link, but hey, copyright is 70years past artist death so study should be valid for considerable time longer...... based on their interpretation however, as your cd is only a "licence" to listen to the music and you dont own anything, therefore they should be liable to provide replacements in appropriate formats. also, that cd you put on in a party, you just illegally distributed music, and those people who listened are pirates and need to be jailed for stealing the artists work
Enforcement of the current/old law isn't what they're trying to do, they're trying to get a levy imposed on all 'blank media' so every CD, USB drive and HDD sold in the UK will give them a little bit of income automatically to make up for 'lost income'. The internet has hammered the income of big music labels for various reasons, so they're really scraping the barrel now for ways to generate income.
Tax on media is already considered unlawful (by EU court of justice ruling), but many states didn't or refuse to adapt to it: http://torrentfreak.com/the-netherlands-must-outlaw-downloading-eu-court-rules-140410/
Piracy isn't killing music. Simon Cowell is! I haven't had the desire to either buy OR pirate mainstream music for over a decade now.
Simple fix - distribution of grey market product likely subject to VAT fraud. You get a 20% discount due to the missing VAT (removal of VAT from VAT free product - #Vat-ception) and then the government can stick what they want on there as you still have cheap media that you as a customer have legally paid your VAT on even if some untrustworthy VAT dodging so'n'so has broken the law elsewhere..
I remember when the record companies tried & FAILED to get a "Blank Media" tariff added to cassettes!
the basic problem is the music industry didn't and doesn't want to change with the times, so they are trying to force a system on us we have moved on from.
They didn't fail in some places, the Private copying levy wiki article goes into details. Although I'm fairly certain their attempts to introduce a photocopying levy failed, along with a levy on internet connections, I'm not sure if printing presses were subject to levies though.
A tax on any storage media I use means I will pirate every bit of music I want. I would refuse to spend another penny on their 'product' ever again. If everyone came out and did that they would back down in a heartbeat.
I wonder how this will work with Amazon's thing where they give you access to the mp3s when you buy some/most CDs?
