Suisa wants CHF 0.12 per MB RAM for audio devices. If you have a 1G iPod, that will cost you CHF 120 extra (about USD 100). Of course everybody is enraged.
Die Verwertungsgesellschaften beantragen eine Vergütung von Fr. 1.04 pro Gigabyte (GB) Aufnahmekapazität für Audio-Aufnahmegeräte (z.B. iPod) und Fr. 1.27/GB für audiovisuelle Aufnahmegeräte (z.B. digitale Set-top-Box mit Harddisc oder Videoharddiscrecorder). Für Audiospeichergeräte mit einem Mikrochip soll die Vergütung 12 Rappen pro Megabyte betragen. ¹
I say we *agree* to this, *if and only if we’re allowed to copy and share any and all audio files we want.* That would be a truly revolutionary, forward-looking, future-proof, innovative financing mechanism for future generations of authors. Don’t you agree?
No more DRM. No more copy protection. No more crippled hardware that doesn’t allow digital copies from device to device.
#Copyright #Switzerland
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
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Unfortunately the “if” part will most likely not be. In france there is a specific tax(1976) on photcopiers that goes directly to book publishers and I think the same kind of tax is applied on CD-R and DVD-R. (It may still be a proposal).
This may be true in other countries as well.
– PierreGaston 2005-02-09 12:16 UTC
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Yeah, this kind of taxation also exists here in Switzerland. What I’m thinking of is some kind of spin. If you pay this tax for a tape, you can record any music you want on it. The crucial difference is that now we want digital copies instead of analog copies. So if the price is outrageous, we should demand more.
– Alex Schroeder 2005-02-09 12:52 UTC
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Hmm I’ve read a bit more the previous link, and if I understand correctly, in France since 1995 an author that gets published, or has been published (paper format) **must** give up her right to reproduce her work (book paper whatever) to a organisation. So she can’t say, I’ve earned enough money go on makes copies of my work, and this has nothing to do with a contract with a publisher, she just can’t, if someone wants to make a copy of the work he must give money to the origanisation that owns the right to reproduce it.
The article was written in 1996, I wonder if the law is still there.
– PierreGaston 2005-02-09 12:53 UTC
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The same is true in Switzerland. If you join one of these organisations (and almost anybody in the text, music of movie business does), then you cannot specify that no fees are due at a concert where your music is played, for example. A direct implementation of the CreativeCommons licenses is therefore problematic. We’re trying to convince these organisations to help us change this. I think our chances are good, because DRM-lobbies *also* don’t like them. If DRM ever takes off, these organisations might be abolished completely. This is why I think they should be interested in working together with us.
– Alex Schroeder 2005-02-09 14:47 UTC