Many changes in European Copyright Levy legislation

There have been more than altogether 1.000 changes in Copyright Levy legislations in Europe within one year, from 2010 to 2011. The number stands only for tariff amendments and/or new tariffs charged on the manufacture, import and/or sale of devices and media which can be used to reproduce and/or store third party protected works, as well as the reproduction of music or written material. This is one of the results of an empirical survey K&L conducted for the European Copyright Levy provisions.

This remarkable number of changes is due to the fact that EU as well as non-EU countries with a copyright levy system in place are constantly negotiating their copyright legislation, the tariff amounts, the material scope etc. This is an ongoing process, continuously monitored by K&L. There is a dynamic development of copyright legislations in all European countries including the candidate countries acceding the EU, with payment changes for many IT products, storage media and consumer electronics as well as modifications in formal requirements and legal basis. Different amounts are being claimed for different product categories. According to the technological progress, again and again new products qualify for being levied. The most disputed levies are at present Tablets, Mobile Phones, Settop Boxes and/or Hard Disks – depending on the already existing legislation in a country. This means that, again, in a year from now we will see probably even more changes. One more reasons to keep a close look on the development there.