[pp.int.general] PP position on levies

[Reinier Bakels]

Forgive me my basic question, but what is PP's position on levies?

In my view, levy systems assume present day copyright as a given and only 
try to make the collection of author compensation money more efficient, at 
the expense of justice. Occationally levy systems are seen as the "next 
best" now that DRM is generally rejected, but it has many disadvantages:
- What is the unit of measure? I assume it can't be anything else than the 
bit.
- There not relationship between the number of bits and the cost, let alone 
the value of a work. A PDF of a work is much larger than a flat ASCII file 
of the same work.
- Due to ever falliing storage cost, the levy proportion of the sales price 
of storage media will stringly increase. 2/3 of the price of a blank DVD is 
levies. For a blue ray DVD it may be 90%. This will evoke a black market and 
associated criminality.
- Levies will touch lost of copyright-free work. E.g. companies dostributing 
*their own* software on CDROM. Or the levies on copiers to be paid by 
business who only copy their own letters, no copyrighted works.
- How to distribute the income from levies? Economic criteria will make 
popular artists even richer. Cultural diversity criteria require complicated 
judgements.
- Levy systems are expensive and suffer from high overheads, "transaction 
cost", in economic terms.
- Levy systems also affect works that were supposed to be free by the 
author: open source software, creative commons, even this e-mail. They 
assume *all* authors want to make money from their works, whch is in 
conflict wirth the basic right of self-determination.
- Levy systems tend to favour traditional distributors (publishers), 
removing innovation incentives.


Groeten, Grüße, Regards, Cordialement, Hälsningar, Ciao, Saygilar, 
Üdvözlettel, Pozdrowienia, Kumusta, Adios, Oan't sjen, Ave, Doei, Yassou, 
Yoroshiku
>>> REINIER B. BAKELS
private: Johan Willem Frisostraat 149, 2713 CC Zoetermeer, The Netherlands 
telephone: +31 79 316 3126, GSM ("Handy") +31 6 4988 6490,  fax +31 79 316 
7221