SONY COMPUTER ENTERTAINMENT v PAUL OWEN & ORS (2002)

[Martin Keegan]

On Thu, 16 May 2002, Jeremy Barker wrote:

> Most other countries allow this sort of copying and impose a royalty charge on
> blank recording media which is fed back through the rights management societies
> to compensate the copyright owners for lost licensing income.  The UK has always
> opposed this approach on the grounds that people who use blank media for other
> purposes are paying a royalty charge unnecessarily.  When a blank media royalty
> charge was proposed in the UK some of the most vociferous opponents were
> charities helping blind people.

Under the new agenda, the levy will be applied to computers themselves,
not just to blank media. Apparently there's a case on in Germany trying to
achieve exactly this. 
 
As a UK resident, I don't look forward to having this situation harmonised
down my throat.

Mk