Analysis - Music tax follow-up: UK music industry echoes US/EU initiatives

[HEXUS]

Britain’s Music Business Group asks for special copyright consideration in view of its ‘heroic contribution to the prosperity of the UK.’

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[kasavien]

#rant

arghh seriously what the hell is wrong with these people, surely they must be inbred to even come up with such idiotic ideas. If i've got the gist of what they're wanting right, why should they be after more of my money when i've already bought and paid for an album. It's not like starbucks sell you you a coffee and then say "Oh i see you're enjoying that coffee in a way we didn't anticipate we want more money because the multimillion $ profit we're already making just isn't quite enough enough, we want your soul too"

makes me mad

#endrant

[Agent]

"Dinosaurs demand extension of Jurassic period" Brilliant

It seems the music industry seems be one of the few people who don't subscribe to the innocent until proven guilty concept.
If I buy music on CD and transfer it to me MP3 player, where have they lost a sale exactly? Presumably they want me to pay for another digital, even maybe DRM'ed version?

There is still very few reasonably priced, non DRM digital download outlets available. Amazing for 2008 really.

[pauldarkside]

Like I heard somewhere else, they'll be wanting to add a tax on my electricity supply next so I can listen to the stuff I've bought on my MP3 player. The whole idea stinks of greed. If they end up taxing me as though I'm a pirate then I see no reason to continue to make legal purchases.

[Saracen]

....

If I buy music on CD and transfer it to me MP3 player, where have they lost a sale exactly? Presumably they want me to pay for another digital, even maybe DRM'ed version? ...

It seems that's exactly what they want, because currently, in the UK, you are breaching their copyright if you do transfer to your MP3 player, or a tape, or your computer.

Instead of trying to tax people for that kind of reasonable personal use, I've got a better idea .... change a stupid and outdated law.

[Agent]

It seems that's exactly what they want, because currently, in the UK, you are breaching their copyright if you do transfer to your MP3 player, or a tape, or your computer.

Instead of trying to tax people for that kind of reasonable personal use, I've got a better idea .... change a stupid and outdated law.

Is it what they want though, or as result of a law being badly applied to modern day technology compared to when it was written?
They did say back in 06 that they had no plans to go after people for personal use.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | UK music fans can copy own tracks
Not that the BPI are a legal entity though.

There were recommendations to change it, but I don't think there has been anything else done about it (although it was only at the start of this year to be fair).

Government backs private copying in copyright reform plan | OUT-LAW.COM
Consultation on proposed changes to Copyright Exceptions

[Saracen]

It seems to be what the Music Business Group want, regardless of the statements from the BPI.

But looking at those BPI remarks, if you read them as political statements (in other words, look carefully at what they say rather than what they appear to mean), the two aren't actually inconsistent.

The BPI said they aren't going to "pursue them" ...

make it unequivocally clear to the consumer that if they copy their CDs for their own private use in order to move the music from format to format, we will not pursue them".

Well, the cynic in me says that they aren't pursuing people that copy for personal use, but that doesn't mean they can't try to tax the buyers of MP3 players. There's a difference between what the BPI actually said, and what people may have assumed they meant.

It's a bit like Gordon Brown and Tony Blair at the '97 election. Labour said "There will be no increase in the basic or top rates of income tax." Many people heard that as " ... will be no increase in tax ..." which, of course, they didn't say. They didn't say that allowances would keep pace, they didn't say some wouldn't be scrapped, they didn't say that NI wouldn't be increased, or that government contributions to local authorities wouldn't be cut requiring huge council tax rises, or that dozens of other taxes wouldn't be increased or new ones introduced.

One of the most artful forms of lying is to tell the absolute truth, but in such a way that people hear what you want them to think, rather than what you actually said. And politicians are masters at it.