Dutch Immediately Ban Unauthorized Downloads After EU Court Of Justice Confirms Incompatibility With Copyright Law
from the that-was-quick dept
The Court of Justice of the European Union is pretty busy these days. Earlier this week it released its important judgment striking down the EU’s Data Retention Directive; now it has given its verdict on a complicated Dutch case involving the home-copying exception of European copyright legislation, and the associated use of copyright levies on blank media. As we reported back in January, the preliminary opinion of the EU’s Advocate General was that the Dutch government should not allow unauthorized downloads of copyright material, as is currently the case, and that copyright levy calculations should not take such unauthorized downloads into account. Unlike the Data Retention verdict, where the EU’s Court of Justice (ECJ) went well beyond what the Advocate General suggested, here the ECJ has largely followed his advice (pdf):
the Court holds that national legislation which makes no distinction between private copies made from lawful sources and those made from counterfeited or pirated sources cannot be tolerated.
In addition, it held that a copyright levy system that does not distinguish between authorized and unauthorized copies is not fair:
Under such a system, the harm caused, and therefore the amount of the fair compensation payable to the recipients, is calculated, according to the Court, on the basis of the criterion of the harm caused to authors both by private reproductions which are made from a lawful source and by reproductions made from an unlawful source. The sum thus calculated is then, ultimately, passed on in the price paid by users of protected subject-matter at the time when equipment, devices and media which make it possible to create private copies are made available to them. Thus, all users are indirectly penalised since they necessarily contribute towards the compensation payable for the harm caused by private reproductions made from an unlawful source. Users consequently find themselves required to bear an additional, non-negligible cost in order to be able to make private copies.
This ruling has already had one immediate effect, as TorrentFreak reports:
The Dutch Government confirmed to [the Dutch Website] Tweakers that downloading copyrighted material for personal use is no longer allowed, effective immediately.
Unauthorized downloading for personal use was permitted in the Netherlands because the government there believed that EU copyright law allowed it. The ECJ’s ruling establishes definitively that it doesn’t, and so the downloading exemption no longer applies.
The longer-term effect on EU copyright levies is harder to predict. The Court’s verdict means that countries may no longer take unauthorized copies into account when calculating how much to add to the cost of storage. It will be interesting to see whether they reduce the copyright levy as a result, as they should if they implemented the new ruling faithfully. However, given the general lack of logic or fairness behind copyright levies, that seems unlikely. The best response would be to drop the anachronistic copyright levies altogether, and for the copyright industries to launch more online services offering lots of material at fair prices to encourage users to switch from unauthorized to authorized downloads, as has happened elsewhere.
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Filed Under: copyright, eu court of justice, netherlands, private levies, unauthorized downloads
Comments on “Dutch Immediately Ban Unauthorized Downloads After EU Court Of Justice Confirms Incompatibility With Copyright Law”
Another measurement please.
And this is going to have what impact on sales of “records” and “dvds” exactly?
I’m skeptical that we will see any real numbers about the net effect of the ban.
Re: Another measurement please.
Maybe it will make them go down.
The best way to get people to do something is to ban it.
Re: Re: Another measurement please.
The Second Rule of Cool applies, methinks.
So, downloading copyrighted material is no longer permitted, effective immediately.
And how long before the levy on blank media will be reduced?
Probably never…
Re: Re:
Now now, I’m sure they’ll be glad to take a reduction to all that free, hassle-free money they’ve been getting from the levies, and in fact I hear they’ve got that reduction scheduled to take place sometime on the 35th of next month, shortly after the Pope’s D&D game and public conversion to Pastafarianism wraps up.
Re: Re:
You’re right it will never happen. Maybe only a modest reduction.
Take into account “Kwartje van Kok”.
Re: Re: Re:
For the non-Dutch-natives here. the “kwartje van Kok” was a 0.25 Guilder levy on fuel somewhere in the 90s when Wim Kok was our prime-minister, because of one of the oil crises.
It was meant to be a temporary thing. But like with everything temporary, it had a nasty habit of becoming permanent.
I’m actually expecting the copyright levy to go up, because fuck us, that’s why. (and more blank-dvd-sales to go to Germany)
The Dutch are a dopey bunch anyway.
as i said in the next post, when it’s something to give aid to the entertainment industries, it happens effective immediately. when it’s something that takes from the entertainment industries, it only happens after the law makers have sat down and debated what they can still do to penalise the public. the Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask cant do enough to penalise her own people and help the Entertainment industries as much as possible. i wonder who backed her to get the job?
Pay the Time if you Don't Do The Crime
Hi…
You haven’t met me, probably never will… but just to be on the safe side, I would like to collect $1,000,000 from each of you in case, one day, you would in fact meet me and decide to punch me, kick me or otherwise harm me.
Of course, just because you paid the $1,000,000 doesn’t mean that you can, in fact, kick me, punch me or otherwise harm me, should we ever meet.
I just want to collect the money now, in case you do…
Hmm…