Computer and printer prices to rise in EU because you can print copywritten stuff

[Chippiewill]

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 legal shenanigans were kicked off by Verwertungsgesellschaft Wort, the group that handles the collection of secondary royalties for copyrighted works in Germany. VG Wort brought a suit against Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, HP, and Kyocera’s German branches.

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 rights holders.

That’s right. VG Wort went to court because the printers HP sells in Germany might be used to print out a copy of the latest Neil Gaiman epic. Amazingly, the Court of Justice agreed. According to the ruling, any EU member state that allows its citizens to make copies of a work for private use must set up a system that compensates authors for those potential reproductions.

Computer-attached printers are targeted, but the ruling actually says that computers are fair game, too. Yes, HP may be forced to pay a printing levy on a computer and pass that expense on to consumers — even if they never hook that computer up to a printer.

Companies that sell other devices that can be used to reproduce such works — like pencils, pens, and typewriters — are apparently off the hook. Unless, of course, VG Wort can convince the Court that a hand, a pen, and a sheet of paper constitutes a “chain of devices.”

http://www.geek.com/news/computer-an...stuff-1560406/

I would typically post something like this in TD but I figured this would give Dan a seizure or something.

This is literally paying fines for crimes we haven't committed, I am simply at a loss as to why anyone thought this was a good or effective idea. I don't even know of anyone who's bothered printing a book anyway, it's probably cheaper just to buy the book due to ink costs, then add in the fact that most people have ebook readers and tablets anyway.. I am thoroughly perplexed who this is meant to hurt - since it's clearly not the pirates.

[FlyingJesus]

That is hilarious I'm gonna set up a copyrighting company and sue the entire EU for the ability to speak out loud

[Yawn]

really ******* interesting!

Edited by Lee (Forum Super Moderator): Do not create pointless posts.

[mrwoooooooo]

Printers should be removed from the face of the earth anyway. Stupid things

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[peteyt]

Printers should be removed from the face of the earth anyway. Stupid things

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Sadly they are needed.

I hope this gets changed though because ink is already stupidly high. I'm looking for a new printer, a wireless one and fancy a one with a screen so I can print stuff out without a computer connected which is handy if my PC ever breaks. The printers are actually cheap it's the ink that's expensive.

[-:Undertaker:-]

As i've said before, this is why I oppose EU decisions even when they 'benefit' us with cheaper services or goods (which they usually don't as companies recover costs in other ways anyway, but yeah for arguments sake) - because whether the EU takes a good or a bad decision in your view, the point is that that decision should be taken at a national level in our sovereign parliament which is accountable to the electorate as opposed to the European Commission which is accountable to no one.

[Chippiewill]

Alternatively the real answer is to make the EC accountable (And in fact all parts of the EU accountable) to the electroate.

[-:Undertaker:-]

Alternatively the real answer is to make the EC accountable (And in fact all parts of the EU accountable) to the electroate.

Which is impossible because the European continent does not have a demos and with no demos (aka a 'people') you cannot have a real democracy.

[Chippiewill]

Which is impossible because the European continent does not have a demos and with no demos (aka a 'people') you cannot have a real democracy.

Then make one..

[-:Undertaker:-]

Then make one..

Like 'Yugoslavia'? like the 'Soviet people'?

While the national identities of Europe (languages, culture, art, history, music, food, drink, flag, faith - everything) continue to exist, the concept of a single European identity will remain as distant as the prospect of Yugoslavia or the Soviet Union ever being a nation was. Politicians sitting around tables cannot create national identities anymore than I can fly to university on a broomstick.

Sure they [USSR + Yugoslavia] 'existed' as political entities ... but they only existed because they were held together by force rather than by will or any national feeling of a single people. And that's the only way you'd ever manage to hold together a single Europe, by force.