The collection of copyrights levy in the Netherlands must be taken into reconsideration according to the confederation of Netherlands industry and employers VNO-NCW and the Royal association MKB Netherlands who wrote an official letter of complaint to the minister of justice Mr. Hirsch Balling. To many organizations act as representatives of the authors, and the collecting of copyright levy. The Dutch copyright law is insufficiently aimed at the interest of the claimant, and unnecessarily cranking up the prices of media content. Employers organizations VNO-NCW and MKB Netherlands want the present implementing bodies who are collecting the money for the artists, like Buma and Sena to be replaced by one new organization, to obtain an huge administrative reduction in the tax burden of the overhead and implementation. Making sure the money from levy income will go to the rightful owners of copyrighted content, and the consumers, instead of ending up in the pockets of all these organizations that interfere with the levy collection.
Entrepreneurs have had it with the organizations (of which some not even are under legal supervision) collecting money that belongs to the rightful owners. “We observe moreover that there is a very strong price increase” thus the company cupolas. Thereby the collection organizations would make abuse of their monopoly position.
Businesses plead for adaptation of the authors law and the law on adjoining rights. “The protection of the rights of the individual claimant, thereby must stand on the first place.” This main point in practice is frequently far from reality, entrepreneurs complaining. It happens that an artist must pay levies for the use of its own work. “The same applies to artists who play their own repertoire at a concert.”
The promises which the minister of justice Hirsch Ballin already did, would not go far enough. The minister had dismissed the (by the collectors) planned levies on music carriers like; MP3 players, iPod’s and hard-disk recorders last month. He also works on a proposal which extends the legal supervision of the organizations concerned.
Source: Dutch government news bulletin.