German Lower House Passes Copying Tax Law

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

24 April 2003

It emerged last week that Germany's lower house has passed laws designed to bring the country into line with the EU's Copyright Directive.

The legislation, which will, somewhat controversially, impose a levy of 12 euros on the manufacture of PCs to compensate copyright holders for revenue lost through illegitimate copying, has yet to be passed by the upper house, and aims to reassure critics of the Copyright Directive, whilst at the same time assuaging the concerns of academic publishers and other copyright holders.

However, speaking to legal publishers, Butterworths this week, IT partner with Wragge & Co, Bill Jones welcomed the fact that the UK authorities have chosen not to go down this path, observing that:

'The problems with a levy are that it is difficult to know how to distribute the money raised in an equitable way and I can't see by what means the amount of a levy can be related to the amount of private copying. Also, industry would soon look for evidence to increase it. It feels to me like a last-resort policy approach.'

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