New Copyright Law: Rising Printer and Computer Prices Feared

Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 21, 2007. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.

Months before the decision, there was already criticism and discussion within the industry, and the first critical voices have already been heard about today’s legislative decision as well. Among other things, the new regulation provides for an extension of the statutory copying levies to electronic copying and storage media. The Federal Association for Information Economy, Telecommunications and New Media (BITKOM) fears this will impose a burden on manufacturers and users.

Private copies may still only be made from CDs and DVDs that are not copy-protected.

According to pressetext, BITKOM sees massive burdens for manufacturers and users of IT devices in the new copyright law and expects negative consequences for the German economy. The expanded copying levy is also expected to lead to an increase in the price of printers and computers. Originally, a limit on the levies of five percent of the sales price was planned, but the Bundesrat opposed this upper limit for compensation rates. This was justified by the steady fall in prices of electronic copying and storage media, which, in the view of the authors, could lead to significant losses. Since the levies would be significantly lower in many other countries, however, a competitive disadvantage would arise for German trade, BITKOM says.

Until now, the compensation rates were laid down by law; new tariffs for individual device groups are now to be negotiated between the manufacturers’ associations and the collecting societies that collect the copying levies for the authors. Even before the negotiations, BITKOM is criticizing the collecting societies’ maximum demand, according to which prices for printers are to rise by ten to 300 euros and multifunction devices with color functionality by at least 76.70 euros. If the law is passed in October, it could come into force as early as the beginning of 2008.

Criticism of the copyright law also came in advance from the German Federation of Consumer Organizations. According to it, the consumer will continue to remain without rights in future. “The claim to transfer a music CD one has bought oneself to one’s MP3 player or to make a backup copy will remain an illusion”, a press release from the association said. On the Internet, consumers would always have to check whether the content they downloaded was offered legally, which was not always possible. Under the new copyright law, private copies of unprotected CDs and DVDs remain permitted; if there is copy protection, the content may not be duplicated. Recordings of IPTV or television programs that are restricted or suppressed by DRM flags also fall under the copying ban, writes the industry portal Sat+Kabel.