Under the updated Dutch Copyright Act, digital copying for private
purposes is allowed. However, right holders are compensated for the losses by a
levy on recording media '“ e.g. recordable CDs and DVDs. The levy is currently 1
Euro for DVD-R(W) discs and 0.50 Euro for DVD+R(W) discs but this will become
cheaper starting from February 2005 according to a news story on the Dutch
website Webwereld.
The Dutch copy levy on DVD-R/-RW discs will be
lowered to 0.60 EURO, for DVD+R/+RW discs it will be lowered to 0.40 EURO. The
difference in levy between the two formats is, according to the Dutch
organisation responsible for the levies, the difference in copy protections. We
still suspect that Royal Dutch Philips (developer of the plus format) is behind
it however there are no proofs to back this up. Compensations for other discs
remain the same.
According to the organisations involved in the levy
pricing the decrease of the levy is due lower pricing in surrounding
countries and lower production costs for the discs which makes the levy relative
large.
Source: Webwereld.nl
