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<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>I have written a lot of
text into the Wiki at: <A
href="http://int.piratenpartei.de/Levies_Questionnaire">http://int.piratenpartei.de/Levies_Questionnaire</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>But now we must make the
next step. PLEASE HELP! The answer is due within a WEEK from now!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>Many of the
<U>conceptual</U> questions are relatively easy to answer from a PP perspective.
Actually when I worked on it, many new ideas came into my mind.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>As levies effectively are a
tax, and copyright is instituted to foster culture rather than to fill
the pockets of authors (and publishers!), the rule "no taxation without
representation" must be respected when levy income is
redistributed.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>With the advent of "web
2.0" with much more user created content, the owners of mobile phones should be
SUBSIDISED rather than subjected to a levy! Television news programs
increasingly depend on mobile phone videos for a first hand account of disasters
and other sudden news items.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>Many of the <U>factual</U>
questions are hard to answer however. The idea of a Wiki for the
international PP community was to allow everyone to enter the information for
his own country, but so far that only happened for Denmark, Spain, and my
country, The Netherlands. But I found that even for your own country, it is
virtually infeasible to contribute all the requested numbers. In NL, levies are
collected by a separate organisation, but the redistribution is by numerous
collective rights societies (I counted 12) who all have their own policy. So my
fellow Wiki writer (Carlos?) who used the work "opaque" a number of times is
VERY right, I am afraid. As I noted before, perhaps we should not even try to
duplicate the work of the levy collecting organisation - who surely will respond
to this questionaire as well.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>I also browsed reports
from the parliament (on Parlando, for the Dutch readers). The "MP3 levy" problem
(as it is usually denoted) keeps coming back over the years. Often the
observaion is made that The Netherlands should do nothing by itself, but
wait for the EU. But we talk to the EU now, so now it becomes really
important.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>Another issue worth while
to <U>investigate</U> is that the levy society (Stichting Thuiskopie) suffers
from major problems to pay all the money it collected to rights owners. They had
so much cash remaining that they even considered to return some money to
the media manufacturers, which in turn was easier said than done. These problems
are also subject of increased parlamentary scrutiny, and yet other bodies were
estblished to oversee "Stichting Thuiskopie". It would be interesting to know
whether similar problems exist in other countries. If other levy collecting
societies have a similarly shady reputation, THAT IS NEWS TOO!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Comic Sans MS" color=#0000ff size=2>Groeten, Grüße, Regards,
Cordialement, Hälsningar, Ciao, Saygilar, Üdvözlettel, Pozdrowienia, Kumusta,
Adios, Oan't sjen, Ave, Doei, Yassou, Yoroshiku<BR>>>> REINIER B.
BAKELS <BR>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</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>