Gartner consulting has send out an advice about taxes on digital media. The company has influence all over the world has send out a warning that taxes on digital media will be bad for general industry as they also apply on media that is used for legitimate backups.
These proposals reflect the ability of the recording companies to influence governments and further their own interests. The advent of digital media and Internet transport has dramatically increased the exposure of owners of intellectual property to loss of revenue, so such increases are justified to a limited extent. Viable digital rights management (DRM) technology has only just started to appear. Because it prevents quick and easy access to content, DRM has a way to go before consumers get used to the idea. Taxing the physical media on which the content is transferred and played offers a reasonable alternative. However, the music industry has launched a multipronged attack, including proposing draconian measures to the U.S. government. |
Such proposals threaten technology vendors. The fees apply to all blank media, including those used for business purposes such as publication of documents, legitimate reproduction of software and backup. Such fees raise the ultimate cost of using and acquiring tech vendors' products and could therefore reduce sales and slow innovation. Moreover, the technology industry also faces the serious risk that the levy could extend to PCs. For example, Germany has such a fee on the CD drive.
It's good to see that a company as Gartner now also sees how important it is that the music industry doesn't get their greedy hands on everything that can be used to copy their music.
There are also companies that benefit from digital media and legal duplication, and also their rights should be protected.
Source: Gartner
