[pp.int.general] [Cafe] levies

[Carlos Ayala]

----- Mensaje original ----
De: Amelia Andersdotter <teirdes at gmail.com>
Enviado: lunes, 24 de marzo, 2008 14:55:51
> If the state should take a more active part in the relation between economy and culture, it would probably be better to
> tax things other than broadband, like carbon dioxide emissions or something. Taxes in general are usually best used to
> limit consumption that's less good for society, and shouldn't punish a natural development of the market.

I see a risk with that approach: merging levies and State role in culture, thus losing the focus.

Levies are meant to be compensatory: if someone makes a legal -this is crucial: no levies must be paid for illegal acts, according to law; 2001/29/EC talks about compensation for the limits (established by laws) of exclusive author's commercial rights- actions, and if such actions supposedly cause losses to copyright holders, law force the people who made such actions -i.e., private copying (if it causes losses, we believe it doesn't)- to compensate copyright holders. So this is not about to tax or not to tax, but to find out if there is something to be compensated.

On the other hand, if we talk about the role of Member States in culture, let us check the national laws of each Member State. In Spain, like article 9 of Italian Constitution of 1947 -"Republic shall promote development of culture and scientific and technical research"- and article 73.4 of 1989 Portuguese Constitution -"scientific creation and research, as well as technological innovation shall be encouraged and supported by the State"-, article 44 of Spanish Constitution of 1978 states that "the public authorities shall promote and watch over access to culture, to which all are entitled" and also that "the public authorities shall promote science and scientific and technical research for the benefit of the general interest"; statements that have been interpreted by Constitutional Court's case law (Spanish) as they mean -refering to the scientific issue- that the State has the obligation of creating and keeping units and centres dedicated to the
 development and spreading of the researching efforts.

The same can be extrapolated for the cultural issue, with museums, art schools -like Spanish Royal School of Dramatic Arts, Spanish conservatoires, etc-, and public spaces for exhibition and spread of cultural works, to just enumerate a few examples. Instead of creating new taxes, one may suggest to reformulate current taxes -for instance (this is not a current PIRATA proposal, it's only an example), instead of actual Spanish 16 % VAT for cultural comercially exploited goods, setting a common EU 4 % VAT for such goods, and also leaving the 12 points remaining after the tax lowerage as room for directly applied taxes; that is, for instance, a total 11 % tax, formed with a 4 % VAT and a 7 % of cultural tax ( used to keep museums and enlarging their inventories; to keep current art schools and creating new ones; to create practising facilities for musicians and singers; etc )-, and that's interesting and may be fine, though I think it's not the subject
 discussed here and now.

If we are talking about levies, we are talking about if copyright holders have to be compensated by non-lucrative filesharing and, in general, by non-lucrative uses of the works whose copyright are held by; also, taxes don't apply as levies are meant to compensate the specific holders of the copyrighted works that are specifically copied/shared -thus taxes philosophy (getting more from whom have more, and giving more to whom have less) has nothing to do with what 2001/29/EC states (giving the compensation exactly to those whose rights have been supposedly affected)-. That's, I think, the point, the what and also the why; the how can be discussed -if necessary- after solving that previous questions -that's what I commented previously to Reinier, and what Reinier agreed to; and also wish we all would finally be able to agree to after considering this approach-. Regards


                                                                                    Carlos Ayala
                                                                                     ( Aiarakoa )

                                                              Partido Pirata National Board's Chairman




       
______________________________________________ 
¿Con Mascota por primera vez? Sé un mejor Amigo. Entra en Yahoo! Respuestas http://es.answers.yahoo.com/info/welcome
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.pirateweb.net/pipermail/pp.international.general/attachments/20080324/5e54f87b/attachment.htm