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UK music industry pushes for a new tax on CD copying
Before October 1st this year, you were probably a criminal. On that day, UK copyright law changed to include a private copying exception that, simply put, means you're allowed to copy media for your own personal use (not distribution, obviously). This is especially important when it comes to music. Although it might be hard to believe, if you've ever ripped a CD and moved the digital copies to an MP3 player or your phone, you were technically committing a crime.
In Amazon dispute, EU Court of Justice rules that levies on blank CDs can be collected 'in some cases'
Amazon's spent quite a bit of time in court as of late; in addition to a recently settled trademark dispute with Apple, a row with an Austrian copyright collection agency is keeping the e-tailer busy. Today, the European Court of Justice ruled that, in some cases, EU countries can collect a levy on blank recording media to ensure that musicians are compensated for their work. The key phrase here is "in some cases," since establishing whether CDs, memory cards, cassette tapes and other media have been used for public consumption isn't exactly easy -- and it's not yet clear whether Amazon will have to pay the 1.9 million euros in question. The next step will be for the Austrian supreme court to decide whether it can even be determined whether Amazon customers used such blank media for anything other than home videos and mix tapes. After all, some would argue that burning a French-electro mix to torment your coworkers on a nine-hour drive is hardly a crime.
Canadian copyright group pushes for levy on memory cards
As even non-Canadians may recall, there was a big issue in the country a few years back over a so-called "iPod tax" (something that cropped up again in the recent election) and, while it still hasn't come to pass, the Canadian Private Copying Collective is now pushing for a music tax of another sort. While there's no iPods in danger of being taxed this time, the CPCC is asking for a new levy to be placed on memory cards (presumably all types, although that hasn't been specified). That levy would vary depending on the capacity of the card, with those less than 1GB facing a $0.50 tax, while cards between 1GB and 8GB would have an additional dollar tacked on, and those over 8GB would cost a full $3 more. Needless to say, that would be a fairly sizable percentage of the price in most cases given the way memory card prices are dropping -- and it would cast a fairly broad brush, as those memory cards obviously aren't just used for music. Of course, it is also still just a proposal but, as the Excess Copyright blog notes, the peculiarities of the Canadian Copyright Board may well give the CPCC a leg up in this case. Head on past the break for its official announcement.
Vivendi CEO becomes Activision Blizzard chairman
Jean-Bernard Levy, CEO of Vivendi, will add the role of Activision Blizzard chairman to his resume. Levy will pick up the duties of outgoing 67-year-old Rene Penisson. Vivendi is the majority owner in the empire known as Activision Blizzard. Blizzavision is expected to announce strong sales in the bajillions - despite the economy's influence - during its financial report this Thursday.Activision Blizzard director, president and CEO Bobby Kotick had no reaction to the news, as he is currently on a deep exploration inside the company's money bin. He'll comment after returning and depressurizing in a couple weeks.
How Activision Blizzard almost didn't happen
A proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission tells the tale of how the Activision Blizzard merger almost didn't happen. GameDaily sifted through the massive document to discover that discussions about the possible merger go back to November of 2006, with things really heating up going into last summer. After little progress on transaction terms, Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO of Vivendi, called up Activision head Bobby Kotick in June to say that he "did not think it made sense to continue discussions concerning a possible transaction at that time."Around July, Kotick contacted Lévy with Activision's new proposal. The lawyers went to work and sometime around September, with "little progress on open issues," Kotick called the deal off. Strangely, Blizzard's Mike Morhaime and other Blizzard managers (who were under the Vivendi umbrella at the time) stepped up and got things back on track with a management structure proposal. By November the Activision Blizzard deal was final and the industry got another 800 lb. gorilla to keep EA company.
No "iPod tax" for Canada
Here's a reason for our Canadian readers to rejoice (and no, I'm not talking about the weak dollar, but thanks for reminding me about that): a proposed levy against iPods and other MP3 players has been defeated. The levy, which was going to be anywhere from $5 to $75 depending on how many songs the device could hold, was meant to help the record industry recoup costs thanks to piracy. The levy was defeated because it assumed that every iPod was chock full of illegally acquired music, and we all know that's not the case. A similar levy that is raised against blank media is still in effect.Phew, I made it through the entire post without a Dudley Do-right joke.
Canada's Copyright Board slaps tax on music downloads
Just a few months after it deemed it suitable to reinstate a levy on digital audio players, the Copyright Board of Canada looks set to stir things up once again, with it now ruling that music downloads should be taxed as well. That decision comes after the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (or SOCAN) had pushed for such a levy, a position the Copyright Board appears to have sided with entirely. Under the new rules, online music stores will have to pay 3.1 cents for each individual track and 1.5 cents per track for entire albums sold directly to SOCAN, which will in turn distribute the funds to the artists. Sites that offer temporary downloads or customizable radio stations will also be facing taxes, although the board hasn't yet released a decision for those that offer music on personal websites. What's more, according to CanWest News Service, the levies will be retroactive all the way back to 1996, which is when the music industry first started pushing for the tariffs.
More iPhone reviews coming in -- Newsweek & USA TODAY
Two more reviews of that loveable scamp of a cellphone are out on the Interwebs, and it's more more more of the same: Steven Levy of Newsweek and Ed Baig of USA TODAY are saying it's time to start believing the hype. Both writers, like Pogue and Mossberg, point out the iPhone's weak spots (EDGE, no one-touch or voice dialing, limited apps, no video capture) while furthering the basic premise: by and large, the iPhone experience lives up to the insane advance billing. Levy's long and thorough review states it plainly early on, as he reports on the reaction to his iPhone use during a visit to Pittsburgh, PA: "[W]hen I showed the iPhone to people during that trip and in the days afterward-especially people under 25-the most common reaction was, "I have to have this," sometimes followed by a quick, if alarmingly reckless, consideration of what might need to be pawned in order to make the purchase.... And there it is: one of the most hyped consumer products ever comes pretty close to justifying the bombast."Baig puts it this way: "[W]ith a few exceptions, this expensive, glitzy wunderkind is indeed worth lusting after... That's saying a lot. After months of hype, Apple has delivered a prodigy - a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod and an Internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset."Interesting tidbits from both reviews: Levy got a call from Steve Jobs during his evaluation period, just to check on how he was doing (!), and he noted the new thinking behind Apple's buy-it-and-go-home iTunes activation plan. Baig's article includes a sidebar entitled "The Quest Begins" with the get-an-iPhone strategies of a few would-be buyers, and Baig encountered a feature I haven't seen mentioned anywhere else; when he finished watching A Bug's Life (it would have to be a Pixar film) on his iPhone, the device asked him if he wanted to clear the movie from memory to reclaim the space. Nice.via Apple 2.0
