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The introduction of a private copying levy scheme has been subject of relevant discussions during the last years between right holders and device manufacturers. Indeed, as far as Italy is concerned, the law implementing the EU Directive 2001/29/EC had already allowed in 2003 private copies of copyright protected works without the consent of the right holders and had also introduced a “fair compensation” scheme to refund right holders of the grant of such private copying rights. Indeed, according to the law, manufacturers of memories, DVDs, MP3 players etc. had to pay a specific amount per each product sold to the SIAE (the Association of Authors and Editors).
Despite the express provision in the law, the Italian Ministry of Cultural Goods has only now issued the decree which specifies the amount due in relation to each type of device and to which type of devices the private copy levy is applicable. This latter matter has been considerably criticized since the levy has been considered applicable also to mobile phones.
In this respect, it is interesting to notice that only 4 EU Member States have extended so far the fair compensation scheme to mobile phones and the reason behind this is maybe that the primary purpose of mobile phones is certainly not the one of an MP3 player or of a memory stick and maybe the applicability of such regime to mobile phones risks to excessively penalize a market from which right holders do not suffer considerable damages.
Also, some mobile manufacturers believe that the Ministry did not have the legal powers to extend to mobile phones such regime since this category of products was not mentioned in the relative law. If you want to discuss the possibilities to challenge this decree, feel free to contact me, Giulio Coraggio.
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