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EU: Mentally challenged make another move
  • The Court of Justice of the European Union handed down a ruling today that paves the way for levies on anything that can print from a computer. Inkjets, laser printers, multifunction devices, you name it — they’re all in line for a price hike.

    The complaint? That printers allow people to reproduce copyright-protected works. That being the case, VG Wort believed that a levy should be collected by the companies that sell printers to compensate rightsholders.

    Via: http://www.geek.com/news/computer-and-printers-prices-to-rise-in-eu-because-you-can-print-copywritten-stuff-1560406/

    Perfect logic. Im this case, I propose to cut balls for VG Wort guys as they potentially can produce criminal offsprings.

    Btw, 30 minute limit in EU is the result of similar mentally challenged guys :-)

  • 15 Replies sorted by
  • Actually, it sounds like a great idea: tax every printer, display or playback device and telepathic transmission mechanism, because that's the only way most copyright holders will ever see any money these days.

    Plus, the NSA is working on software to charge your bank account every time you play a piece of music in your head or imagine a scene from a Hollywood movie. The higher the resolution of your mental processing, the higher the fee.... Guys who can do 4K or 24 bit music will be bankrupt in two weeks.

  • LOL @ Perfect logic. Im this case, I propose to cut balls for VG Wort guys as they potentially can produce criminal offsprings.

  • This is an preemptive move to impede the proliferation of 3D printers right?

  • EU governments after bailing banks are now desperate to fill budget holes. Expect a breathing tax soon...

  • Yeah, sure, go for it.. tax us and get a few cents each time off to the appropriate holders of intellectual property.

    But..

    PRINTERS ??

  • Today, while collecting a Toyota part I had to wait for on order, I was talking to the parts guy about the industry rumour about the possibility of printing lots of their current stock, on-site, from CAD files.

    Now, if the EU really does have that scenario in its sights, as @Dazza is alluding to, then surely patent-protection would be better enhanced by allowing cheaper parts printing from within Europe? Suddenly, imported parts would find it hard to compete with locally printed ones (say, e.g. a Landrover Discovery dashboard air-vent, currently $161.00 and not in stock)..

    We're in for exciting times!

  • @Walker

    3D printers are very badly suited for production. resulting time spent is large and cost is not small. They are devices made for prototyping mostly.

  • 3D printers are very badly suited for production

    Current models, yes. But give them five years, sophisticated "ink" formulae and a $100,000 printer? Watch this space, I say.

  • But give them five years, sophisticated "ink" formulae and a $100,000 printer? Watch this space, I say.

    5,10,50, does not matter. You can't change physics and nature.

    Media is very eager to find another breakthrough tech. They are just looking at the wrong places.

  • I agree apart from some prototypes and one off customised niche products it's usefulness if overhyped. Why spend all that effort to make some some plastic crap when it can be done in split second in a factory in China/India. It's one of those products that get used as a positive future for economies like Green tech etc, I don't see much future in them.

  • @jimmykorea @Vitaliy_Kiselev

    Why spend all that effort to make some some plastic crap when it can be done in split second in a factory in China/India.

    Like I said: A Land Rover vent has to be sent over the sea in a container in the correct quantities, stocked at various warehouses and at a local distribution network just in case someone orders one. The part - even a thin gasket - has to be given a number, put on an inventory, a box with a bar-code, a place on a shelf where it waits for a purchaser. It has to be paid-for by the dealership, cash-up-front. If the dealer pre-orders, the Landrover vent might wait on that shelf for quite a while, because some items only sell 5 per year. So the dealer decides to order ex-Germany. The price gets inflated by 12,000% - and the customer still has to wait.

    In Australia we sell too many models of, say, cars. Even with the current just-in-time stock practice, this country cannot maintain enough warehouses with enough different parts available at acceptable wait periods. Which has got the Toyota dealerships talking.

    And don't get the wrong idea touted by the media that we, as consumers will be producing these items. Rather than being called a printer, these robotized CAD-to-product machines will be de-centralised strategically and specialised.

    I didn't make this up - this is what manufacturers are predicting. My original source was a designer on ABC radio last week.

    Some molecular biologists are even using organic compounds to try to print cells, skin and even more.

    Now, back to the idea of taxing the printer as a means of protecting the copyright - or rather, patent to a particular CAD design. -I think Dazza might be pointing us in the right direction as to what the EU is trying to achieve - (they're certainly not talking about all us people printing websites onto paper!) - even if the the idea would be premature and naive.

  • Like I said: A Land Rover vent has to be sent over the sea in a container in the correct quantities, stocked at various warehouses and at a local distribution network just in case someone orders one. The price gets inflated by 12,000% - and the customer still has to wait.

    Proper solution can be making to things - add special big tax to every new modul of car (besides 2 for each manufacturer). Say 200%. And also charge this guys 500% tax on every component for cars, if their sale price is >120% of part price in new sold car.

  • I can imagine some European countries may be looking to what we are calling "3D printing" as their light at the end of a dark tunnel in terms of manufacturing. Right now they own own the patents, but are losing the manufacturing process to the countries which can do it cheaper.

    Producing some items locally in an automated fashion might save their bacon. A computer, a machine out the back with a sack of plastic pellets is a tempting prospect for them.

    But, as the music and entertainment industry has learned, it's almost impossible to keep a music file, a movie or a patented design CAD file from getting pirated, out in the wild and distributed. As @Dazza says, taxing the machines could be an attempt to glean some revenue from feral production the way the French taxed the VCR .

  • Holland has had taxes on CD/DVD discs and HD's for a while coz they are 'often used to store pirated copyrighted material'.

  • @dtr

    It's a system which works surprisingly well. In the 1980's the French did sample surveys of what people were actually listening to and discovered kids were passing around recordings of Led Zeppelin from the 70's - while this popularity was not reflected in CD or Vinyl or official cassette sales at all! So a simple tax on cassettes was imposed and Led Zeppelin distributor (and eventually the band) received some belated, surprise revenue.

    These days the pay-per-download system is the only thing that seems to work - for music, but not-so-well for films.

    Personally I find that the download system takes too much of the fee before distribution. For 6 months I have been looking for a voluntary system to pay artists and rights-holders directly. It seems to me I should end up paying a little less - and the artists should receive a little more. A system would need to exist which would consolidate thousands of tiny amounts and make incremental payments. Anyone want to start one up?

    In the meantime, taxing all media, from SD-cards, hard drives and so on is feasible. So is taxing downloads via ISPs. But governments could easily end up taking out a big slice of the revenue pie in administration costs, so we're no better off.