I am so sick if the moron brigade over at the MPAA and their constant crying and lies and persecution of kids and their own fans over the issue of Piracy. Well, tech columnist and regualr member of the TWIT podcast, John C. Dvorak has a suggestion that might shut them up. Putting a tax on blank media and media hard drives that goes to the MPAA.
Here is an excerpt from Dvorak’s article:
In Canada, they tax blank CDs. There the tax is called a levy, since it doesn’t benefit the government and is done at the behest of Hollywood. The current levy is 21 cents per CD-R. They also levy a flat $25 on any hard disk in an MP3 player for the same reasons. (This Web site follows that process.)
There seems to me to be some element of racketeering here, but who is going to do anything about it if the government is in bed with the racketeers?
That said, I’d like to know if it would shut them up if we implemented these sorts of levies on blank media and MP3 devices in the U.S.
In my opinion, this move could indeed work in theory, and perhaps it would shut those idiots at the MPAA up. Throw them a BILLION dollars a year in media levies and we might not have to put up with stories of them suing teenagers and watching their pathetic hypocritical ads.
However, there is a principle here that really bothers me. I don’t download illegal music or movies. So why should the MPAA be legally allowed to treat ME like a criminal and charge me a levy on my blank media and portable media devices??? Why the hell should I pay blood money to that cabal of descendants of inbreeders? The idiots known as the MPAA. Why should YOU be treated like a criminal and be forced to pay the MPAA for that blank DVD you want to burn the video of your daughters first step?
Would it shut them up? Maybe… and maybe it’s worth it. But a part of me just HATES what this represents… the power the the MPAA has to do whatever the hell they want, and we end up trying to think up ransoms to pay them. Sad. So what do you think about Dvorak’s idea?
Cool site. Thank you.
I don’t think they go far enough,
Car manufacturers should be paying banks a levy on every car sold.
Every year people use cars to transport stolen money from bank robberies.
It’s useless. There is such a tax in the Netherlands and there is still a very annoying antipiracy short at the beginning of almost every dvd.
Here here!
Get your money’s worth!
If I’m charged for the price of blank media, then I’ll become for Blackbeard of DVD piracy. I’ll copy anything that comes out, because I’ll be damned if some mega-millionaires in LA are going to charge me for something I never even pirated. If I’m going to pay some damned tax then I’m damn sure going to get my money’s worth and then some.
John’s dead RIGHT! This will simply be another outlet for a commerical entity to derive revenue. They’ll use it to force everyone to give them some money, then they’ll turn around and claim they need more. Remember, GM the airline industry and Big Oil are all BILLION-dollar industries, yet they all get HUGE subsidies (corporate welfare, money for nothing) and every year these companies that turn BILLIONS in profit demand higher subsidies and raise rates for their customers.
This is the way corporations think. They don’t care what’s right, simply what puts money in their pockets. The suits in Beverly Hills will love that they get free income.
But my question is: how can they justify the fee? Do they have a way of saying, “This is how many downloads of copyrighted movie/music material there is a day and this is how much we’re losing?” Of course not. They have NO IDEA how many downloads there are, or even if it’s hurting them. But that won’t stop them from claiming that even with BILLIONS in box-office and DVD sales they’re still going out of business. Parasites.
The especially funny bit is that, due to this tax, it is legal to download and upload copyrighted materials in Canada. The reasoning here is that if it were illegal to do so, then the tax levy would be unjustified.
This could just be an urban legend, but it sounds like the kind of ridiculous loophole that is just silly enough to be real.
This would make me pirate.
I don’t now, but if I was paying for it then why shouldn’t I get what I’m paying for?
A couple weeks ago, another MPAA newsblurb ispired me to write a blog on my myspace (http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=21347856&blogID=200556726&MyToken=2a27f00e-1a48-46a5-a90c-bbe6cdbf6df9)
My biggest problem with the MPAA and their ‘War on Piracy’ is that I feel that they are punishing everybody for a crime only so few have committed.
Out of the people that I have met that download movies off the internet have told me that the reason they do so is not because they want to committ a crime and love to piss off the MPAA, but because theater tickets are growing more expensive, the whole theater experience (noisy kids, 15 minutes worth of TV ads before the 20 minutes worth of movie ads, etc…), and the fact that the ratio of movies good to bad is growing more and more dissapointing.
I totally agree with you on this. I too don’t download movies or music, why should I have to pay the MPAA to make a copy of my graphic design project, or school slide presentation? Blank CD’s and such are not just used for music and movies.
First of all, you’re right, it’s a racket. Second of all, the answer is no – money, tax, levy, fine, whatever you want to call it will not shut them up. They’ll just want more money and still file suits.
The flip side of that levy is that as a consumer I am now paying a mandatory fine for something I might do. By that logic then, they are giving me the ok to burn copies of whatever I want, since I’ve already paid the fine. They’ve basically legalized what they’re trying to stop. So bring on the DVD-R’s and burn, baby, burn…
The sad part is that probably none of that levy money goes to the artists that get ripped off. It’s just lining the pockets of the greedy and corrupt execs.
We’ve had a tax like that on blank media, copy machines etc. in Germany for years and it hasn’t helped to shut up the music and movie industry representatives at all. They’re still suing everyone and their mother over here, they’re even setting up P2P servers themselves just to sue people who a falling for these tricks.
You should be happy you don’t have to pay extra media taxes when you’re just using CD-R oder DVD-+R discs to backup your personal files.
I say destroy the MPAA. They are useless.
John, I agree with you. It is crap to make ALL CONSUMERS pay for the ABUSE of TECHNOLOGY By A FEW. Blank media is Technology, and it is used for more than downloadble music and movies. Some people use it for their own home video, picture storage, file back-ups, etc. This practice would be a punishment on individuals for simply USING technology. It’s crap, it’s a racket, it’s big business in North America, and becuase it sucks, it will probably happen.