Broadband News
News, views and analysis
Is there a music tax on the way?
31 Mar 2009 | 11.28 Europe/London
Lord Carter, the Minister for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting has suggested a "music tax" to cover artist royalties. The government is looking to a £20 charge per internet user, which would be added to the customer's ISP charges, for access to "unlimited content". The initial idea would be on a voluntary basis but there are concerns that all Internet users will in due course incur the "music levy" whether they make use of downloading facilities or not.
Illegal downloading is one of the major problem of the Internet, at least from a commercial point of view, with billions of illegal downloads each year. The music industry has been very proactive in the courts, taking legal action against those found guilty of music piracy. However, the idea of making every Internet user pay for something they may not use has attracted significant criticism.
After a period of relative freedom for Internet users and Internet service providers, the recent Government’s Dig Brit report is looking to tighten regulations and laws regarding Internet use. While there may be justification for a "music tax" there are serious concerns as to what other "online taxes" will be added in the future as governments around the world start to see the Internet as their personal "tax machine".
Source : BCS
Illegal downloading is one of the major problem of the Internet, at least from a commercial point of view, with billions of illegal downloads each year. The music industry has been very proactive in the courts, taking legal action against those found guilty of music piracy. However, the idea of making every Internet user pay for something they may not use has attracted significant criticism.
After a period of relative freedom for Internet users and Internet service providers, the recent Government’s Dig Brit report is looking to tighten regulations and laws regarding Internet use. While there may be justification for a "music tax" there are serious concerns as to what other "online taxes" will be added in the future as governments around the world start to see the Internet as their personal "tax machine".
Source : BCS
Surely this should be simply levied on being alive, as you don't have to use the Internet to acquire music, or indeed anything covered by copyright, in a copyright-infringing fashion.
31 Mar 2009 | 12.17 Europe/London
Yet again people that don't contribute to internet piracy are going to be paying out money for those that do. How is this supposed to win favour of those that already download content illegally? They will just think "Well I am paying a tax for it now so I will just keep on doing it". Perhaps we should have; software tax, movie tax, games tax, porn tax and all sorts of other tax to cover what you can obtain over the internet ilegally? And how much of this £20 is actually going into the music industry? What would be done with it? I can't imagine for a second that it would be invested in technology to make the detection of illegal downloading more accurate, or contribute to the prosecution of people behind large scale piracy. It's more likely just going to be pocketed.
I hope people that don't illegally download music such as myself outright refuse to pay a tax which implies they are. Hell, if it is enforced... bring on the torrents!
31 Mar 2009 | 14.05 Europe/London
Why all this fuss about copyright, most of the films and music on sites such as mininova have been shown on the tv and probably recorded onto tape or disc and kept for years so whats all the fuss about.
Isuppose there is a case to answer when new releases are downloaded but the fact is that dvds are far to expensive already.
When will these companys realise that if they reduced the cost of films and music then they would make more money, i for one will not pay £14.95 for a dvd which is then a few months later reduced in price by almost £10.
This music tax is just another ploy to extract yet more money from the already hard up consumer
31 Mar 2009 | 20.42 Europe/London
"When will these companys realise that if they reduced the cost of films and music then they would make more money"
when will idiots realise that retailers are expert at pricing and loads of people do buy at current prices so revenue is maximised.
Thieves that claim they would spend money rather than steal if the price were lower are just exhibiting further dishonesty - cheapskate pikeys and chavs are going to nick stuff whatever the price.
02 Apr 2009 | 07.06 Europe/London
"cheapskate pikeys and chavs are going to nick stuff whatever the price"
That's all well and good but when did cheapskate chavs and pikeys learn how to configure a torrent client, or even hold down a phone line without it being cutt of for ADSL?
As fun as chav bashing is I think tommytorets has a point; my ex and I bought many a BluRay, DVD, Music album, etc when on a good income and now that I an unemployed (not a chav - I'm actually looking for work :P ) I've had to stop the frivolous spending, but freely admit that I'm not adverse in my current financial situation to listen to recordings of music I like from time to time...
02 Apr 2009 | 17.55 Europe/London
"when did cheapskate chavs and pikeys learn how to configure a torrent client"
any PC user can do that, a couple of clicks to download and install it, another couple of clicks on a link and you'll be "sharing" (stealing) a file. Furthermore the torrent client will be maxing out your bandwidth to the detriment of others.
You only have to look at the inverse correlation between household income and prevalence of Limewire et al to see what the issues are.
03 Apr 2009 | 09.15 Europe/London