pipolala used our newssubmit to tell us that the Belgian political party, SPIRIT, has posted an interesting proposal on its website.
The main idea is that downloading and copying of music should become legal and in exchange digital carriers (such as CD-R's, MP3-players, hard disks, etc) should simply be charged more:
It's a widely spread phenomenon; via the internet large amounts of music are being downloaded, especially by young people. This music is downloaded for free so things like copyrights are not being paid. This is illegal but the government can't do anything to prevent it. SPIRIT wants to deal with this using a proposal that should deal with both the high CD-prices and the justified complaints of the music industry. Legalize downloading of music and finance copyrights with increased prices for digital carriers. This is the main idea of the SPIRIT-proposal: |
- Offering copyrighted material on the internet will be legalized.
- Downloading and copying of music will also be legalized.
- Empty CD-ROMs and audio CDs will be charged more.
- Other digital carriers (such as hard disks) will also be charged more but CD-writers and computers will not.
- Some exceptional groups that don't have to pay for copyrights by law can have their CDs reproduced in the local library and only have to pay for the (CD-R) disc itself.
- The music industry is not allowed to place copy-protections on their CDs.
- Taxes on CDs will be decreased from 21% to 6%.
The complete Belgian article, which describes how the Belgian political party SPIRIT exactly wants to implement the proposal, can be read here.
Source: SPIRIT
