🚀 go-pugleaf

I saw a cartoon somewhere the other day concerning the recent losses 
from bushfires.  In the first frame, a bloke was growling "Somebody is 
going to pay for this!"  He the second frame, he was looking at his 
insurance renewal premium...

So it seems it may well be with blank CDs and DVDs -- we'll all bloody 
well pay to compensate performers and the recording industry generally 
for loss of income due to piracy.  The a-v mob, Screenrights, and 
their music industry counterpart, APRA, want to introduce a fee to 
compensate for "rampant" illegal copying.  They're looking at a 
recording levy of between 3% and 10% and believe that this time it 
will survive a High Court challenge (c.f. cassette tapes).

Oh, and if you are genuinely making legitimate non-infringing use of 
blank CDs and DVDs you will be able to obtain a refund of the levy 
paid "upon application".

Bully for them!  No doubt that's the line that will make the scheme 
legal.  In practice, I guess we'll all be guilty and will just grin 
and bear it as it's hard to imagine it would be worth the effort of 
filling out and forwarding that application for a few dollars 
refund each time you buy a few blanks for your backups.

[Ref: _The Australian_ 21 Jan 2003, "The Nation" p.3.]


Cheers, Phred.

-- 
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