The Burden of Levies
Type
Journal
Journal
The Oath
Issue
December
Page
34
Jurisdiction
World, European Union
Taxonomy
Copyrights
Date
1 December 2011
Copyright
© Niche Publishers FZE, Dubai 2011
There have been a number of developments in copyright levies, following the ground breaking “Padawan” judgment of the European Court of Justice on October 21 last year. Recent developments in the law relating to copyright levies in Europe could result in an overhaul of copyright levy systems. The Oath called upon two Bird & Bird experts to explain what's going on.
What are copyright levies?
Copyright levies are systems that impose fees on the manufacture, import and/or sale of devices and media which can be used to reproduce and/or store third party copyright works, such as recordable CDs and MP3 devices.
Broadly, the system is based on the device and media end users being exempted from liability for copyright infringement for certain defined permitted acts in return for the payment of a flat fee in form of the levies (which are imposed on the device and media).