Japanese government to levy royalty fees on BD-Rs / Blu-ray recorders

by Darren Murph posted Jun 17th 2008 at 10:32PM

We just can't see this one going over well. Reportedly, Japan's Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry and the Education, Science and Technology Ministry have jointly decided to administer royalty fees on all blank Blu-ray Discs (BD-R / BD-RE) and Blu-ray recorders. According to the entities, such a system is necessary to "compensate copyright holders for the increase in copying by individuals due to the development of new digital technologies." It was also noted that there was some disagreement on whether all HDD-based recorders should be taxed (not to mention those oh-so-innocent portable media players), and further "discussions" could make the fees applicable to even more hardware. Tax everyone for the actions of a few -- sounds like a totally infallible plan, no?

Filed under: Regulatory, Blu-ray, Recorders

Tags: blu-ray, blu-ray recorder, Blu-rayRecorder, copyright, fees, optical media, OpticalMedia, piracy, Royalties, Royalty

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

EQC @ Jun 18th 2008 3:03AM

Governments and copyright holders, please choose no more than ONE of the following two options:

DRM -or- fees/taxes to compensate for supposed piracy.

DRM only hurts those that "play fair," as DRM reduces the functionality of media/devices that consumers pay for.

These fees/taxes hurt everybody...but are especially painful, again, to those who play fair: why should I pay taxes/royalties to hollywood if I put together a BD-R full of home movies?

If DRM is doing its job, then there is no reason for the fees/taxes as piracy *should* be impossible or prohibitively expensive. If DRM isn't doing it's job, then quit putting it on every damn thing you can think of.

Of course, as a consumer, I would prefer that Governments/Copyright holders choose neither option and just catch the mass-producing pirates out there instead of punishing everybody.

For them to choose just one option is anti-consumer and mean.

But choosing both options??!! Like loading up BD's with DRM and simultaneously charging fees on BD-R media and recorders? That's like stealing my breakfast and making me vomit up last night's dinner too. Thanks for nothing, jerks! I'll take my business elsewhere!

Neutral

DrXym @ Jun 18th 2008 6:23AM

Last time I checked Blu Ray was copy protected so I don't see how they can justify royalty fees on blank media. And if they do mandate royalties on blank media they should outright ban DRM altogether. They shouldn't be allowed to have it both ways.

Neutral

MadMike @ Jun 18th 2008 11:07AM

The BD+ copy protection lasted all of 2 weeks before it was cracked.

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