According to reports, Spain is soon to enact a new anti-piracy tax on all electronic devices capable of recording, copying, or storing sound and images. This tax will be implemented on July 1st and will be directed towards the manufacturers of these devices. A tax of €3.15 (around $4.90) will be levied on all devices with the aforementioned qualities, and a tax of €1.10 (around $1.70) will be placed on all cell phones with Mp3 capabilities.

I personally see this as an attack on a businesses right to produce media devices. The Spanish government is operating under the assumption that all people who buy Mp3 players pirate their music. While it is no doubt evident that there is a large amount of music piracy going on, it is not right to declare someone guilty before hand.

This decision is unfortunate, because it will require businesses to pass on the cost to consumers to make up for every device which they produce.

-Jameson

[Source: iLounge]

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 3:44 pm and is filed under DRM. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.