taxes on (potentially fostering piracy) CD burners
Stefano Maffulli
stefano.maffulli at milug.org
Fri Jun 29 07:53:28 UTC 2001
This is one of the headlines that makes me spill the coffee on the keyboard
(I almost trashed the laptop, should be more careful).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1411000/1411939.stm
[...]
The Stuttgart district court ruled that Hewlett Packard would have to pay a
fee on every CD burner it sells in Germany, arguing that the technology was
being used to lift music off the internet in contravention of artists'
copyright.
[...]
Germany's powerful copyright lobby welcomed the judgement.
[...]
In theory, GEMA would like to claim copyright fees from manufacturers of
computer printers, high-speed modems and even hard drives.
As the article implies, this case could set a precedent also for other
European countries .... brrrrr chills. What will be next? Prevent crime
putting all citizen in jail periodically as "prevention"? Giving a fine to
every car-driver each day because s/he could park in no-parking zone?
Could be a Simpsons episode, but it's not :(
I better go clean this keyboard, it's sticky :-)
See ya
stef
--
Stefano Maffulli aka Reed | Milano Linux User Group
http://www.zoomata.com a close-up on italy | http://www.milug.org
To err is human...to really foul up requires the root password.
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