Taxes on cds and dvds?

[cippe]

In italy there is a tax of 0,87 euro on dvds and 0,23 euro on cds...in whitch other european country is there a similar tax?

[HAGGARD]

Here in the Netherlands...

50cents for CD and DVD+, 1euro for DVD-...

'HAG

[LeoNapier]

Same thing here in Greece!!!
There are some sort of 'copyright charges' according to a new law 2002 imposed on all optical media CD-R, DVD+/-R(W)!!!

Funilly enough, same 'copyright charges' are imposed on A4 photocopy paper as well !!!!

No indication of how much those charges are exactly though.... Receipts only say that the above mentioned charges are included in the price of the products.

On another note, is that a bit too much in favor of the film/music industry or am i just being unreasonable here???

It seems to me a bit unfair having to pay 'copyright charges' on optical media when using it to store uncopyrighted material (backups, home videos and such!!).

Any insights from other ppl out there???

LeoNapier

[Duchess]

I have bad news for the Europeans, the tax is not for the music industry. It was done to "level the playing field so that European manufacturers will not be disadvantaged". In other words the tax was put there to deliberately increase the price of disks so that it won't make Euro manufactured goods too expensive to sell. The fact that there are no manufacturers in Europe (that I know of anyway) who make blank media is irrelevant in the eyes of the politicians. It's just a way to make more money for the EU coffers IMHO.

[Adder_78]

I have bad news for the Europeans, the tax is not for the music industry. It was done to "level the playing field so that European manufacturers will not be disadvantaged". In other words the tax was put there to deliberately increase the price of disks so that it won't make Euro manufactured goods too expensive to sell. The fact that there are no manufacturers in Europe (that I know of anyway) who make blank media is irrelevant in the eyes of the politicians. It's just a way to make more money for the EU coffers IMHO.

Sorry but you're wrong. That money goes to the artists. For example here in Finland we have this CANCER oh sorry I ment TEOSTO which controls those "taxes". ~50% of the tax-payments goes to the artists and rest is for TEOSTO to cover costs. The tax is for DVDR/DVDRW 0.90 euros per disc.

EDIT: and there is also one funny thing here in Finland too. If I order more than 30 DVDR/DVDRW media from for example UK I have to pay that 0.90 euros tax per disc because TEOSTO thinks that over 30 discs can not be for personal use. So only 30 discs is allowed to import without tax...

[iooi]

EDIT: and there is also one funny thing here in Finland too. If I order more than 30 DVDR/DVDRW media from for example UK I have to pay that 0.90 euros tax per disc because TEOSTO thinks that over 30 discs can not be for personal use. So only 30 discs is allowed to import without tax...

Good job you can buy in spindles of 25 then

As far as i'm aware we dont as yet pay any extra taxex on disks in the UK but i have no dobt if this is a EEC thing then sooner rather than later we will be having to stump up....
Just another way to rip us punters off.

[LeoNapier]

I have to agree with Adder!

Charges most definately seem to be going towards film/music industry...
...as if they werent making enough from overpriced CD's and DVD's already!!!

One thing that I am curious about is how much these charges really are....
Supposing the law in Greece is in sync with the rest of the EU it should be about 0,90 euro per disk right?
Funny thing is I am bying DVD-Rs x1 at 0,95 - 1,30 euros in 90 disk spines over here!! 8)

Would it be that the poor DVD manufacturers ( :P ) are only getting 0.05 - 0,35 euros per disk....

Or have I just admitted to bying optical media that hasnt cleared EU customs properly so I should rot in prison for my sins!!???

Btw, I do have legitimate receipts to show for my optical media purchases!!!


Leonapier

[Jukka]

There is a similar tax across the EU (not the UK, yet) on photocopiers and is levied as a copyright tax - not sure where the money goes though.

[DVO]

In Sweden there are plans to increse the tax per MB for all CD's DVD's etc. Don't rember the exact price but it will be more for RW then for R. A DVD will get approx 3 euro in tax. I think it can very well kill the sales here.

[BJ_M]

there is a special surcharge tax on all blank cd's sold in canada - which allow you to make backups of your own music (canada different than usa) ... of course its on ALL cd's which is a little unfair in a way -- but in another , maybe not ...

there is supposed to be also a surcharge on blank dvd's for the same reason -- but no one seems to have a clue if it is being charged yet and when it was supposed to go into effect (it was supposed to be last year - but seems nothing happened) ..

[iooi]

There is a similar tax across the EU (not the UK, yet) on photocopiers and is levied as a copyright tax - not sure where the money goes though.

You sure on it not being in yet as i know where i work we get a call each week on how many copies we have done....and yes it is our own bought photocopier.
Bit of a major cheak as we own the copyright on every thing we copy.....