Varapalo to technology companies. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has agreed with the copyright management entitiesframed mainly in Adepi (includes AISGE, AIE, CEDRO, DAMA and EGEDA), to decide which companies and individuals should pay the CanonDigital which they then deliver to their adociados. The Digital Canon is paid by manufacturers -and they usually affect the end user- and technology companies to compensate for private copies of artists’ works -books, movies, music- that are made on digital devices such as computers, telephones, tablets, discs hard, cross-functional teams, etc.
AMETIC, the employers’ association representing the digital technology industry sector in Spain, raised its doubts about the Spanish Digital Canon system to the European courts at the beginning of 2021. The system developed by the Government to manage the Canon Digital in Spain focuses on a Digital Single Windowwhich enables a legal entity that brings together all the intellectual property rights management entities (even those that are not represented in adepi).
When technology purchases are made by companies, the law states that they must be exempt from the payment of the Digital Canon, considering that the copies made in companies are for professional use, not private, so they should not pay the rate.
The employers of technology companies demanded that Brussels be an independent body that decides who is obliged to pay the Canon and who is not
In fact, through this Window (it is a website), companies can be exempt from paying the Digital Canon if they have a certificate previously issued by the Digital Single Window itself, being able to claim a refund of the fee paid for each piece of equipment. A format that the employers do not like because they say that the complicated bureaucracy means that the return of it is not claimed. For this reason, AMETIC filed an appeal with the CJEU in which it requested that the exemption from payment be made ‘by default’, automatically, simply stating that the purchaser is a company.
The technological ones: “It’s the fox taking care of the chickens”
The decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union is a blow to the interests of those represented by AMETIC, although the Luxembourg-based body details that so that the rights management entities can decide who pays the Digital Canon and who does not , three conditions must be met: that there are objective criteria in the payment decision, that there is no margin of discretion, and that there is the possibility of appealing to an independent body. This last claim was the one promoted most strongly by AMETIC, which requested it by default, prior to payment of the Canon, and not after paying it, as the CJEU has ruled. Luxembourg leaves the decision of the Spanish justice, however, the final decision.
Industry sources explain to Vozpopuli that those represented by AMETIC are upset because “it is a decision that puts the fox in the care of the chickens. The entities that represent the interests of the artists are the ones that will decide who should or should not pay the Digital Canon for private copy compensation”.
Agreement for the cost of Canon Digital
AMETIC, Adepi and the Government have reached an initial agreement to update the price of Canon Digital, which has different costs depending on the devices. An agreement that in some cases will multiply the prices of the technology by up to three.
Until now, mobile phones had a rate of 1.10 euros per unit sold. Now it will be 3.75 euros. If we see what happens with tablets, the Digital Canon also rises, although less. Specifically, it will go from the current 3.15 euros to 3.75 euros if the draft, as everything indicates, is approved as it is.
Desktop and laptop computers are the ones who will see the price of the rate fall. From now on for the purchase of each computer a total of 5.33 euros will be paid, when before the cost was 5.45 euros.
Multifunction printers will be subject to a Canon of 5.25 euros per unit, the same as before. Non-rewritable discs support 0.08 euros per unit; a figure that will also remain with respect to the previous Canon. Nor do USB memories vary in price, with 0.24 euros per unit.
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