"Copyright-royalty-replacement" taxes
The was an interesting mention by Donna Wentworth at Copyfight of a recent Valenti interview
One portion of it in particular grabbed my attention, right after a mention of the famous "VCR is [to the movie industry]...as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone.":
Jack Valenti: I wasn't opposed to the VCR. The MPAA tried to establish by law that the VCR was infringing on copyright. Then we would go to the Congress and get a copyright royalty fee put on all blank videocassettes and that would go back to the creators [to compensate for videocassette piracy].
Umm, ... umm ... where have I just heard about something similar? Well there's the media tax in the "Audio Home Recording Act". And then there's the tax on bandwidth idea.
I'm beginning to wonder ... aside from all the talk of sampling and implementation details ... has anyone considered what'll happen if such a tax ends up not as a replacement for the copyright system, but as an additional source of revenue to the industry ?
I know, I know, that's not the proposal. But I'm pondering if anything happens, that such an outcome may be the eventual result.
By Seth Finkelstein | posted in copyblight | on February 03, 2003 11:57 PM (Infothought permalink) | Followups
