French private copy levy proposal on PCs, Digi Mart USA News (France): Buying a new PC could soon cost a little more in France. According to documents obtained by L’Informé, representatives of rights holders want to sharply increase the private copy remuneration on several electronic devices and, for the first time, extend it to computers.
Under their latest proposal, a new laptop would carry up to 30 euros in additional charges, compared with 24 euros for a desktop computer. The levy, which has existed in France for several decades, is meant to compensate authors, artists and producers for copies of works that individuals may legally make for personal use.
The levy is currently collected on devices and media capable of storing content, such as smartphones, tablets, USB drives and external hard drives. Manufacturers and importers pay it to Copie France, and it is then passed on to the consumer’s purchase price.
Under the proposed new scale, computers could join this list.
Unlike the scale used for smartphones, the amount proposed for computers would not depend on storage capacity. A small laptop would therefore face the same charge as a large gaming machine equipped with several terabytes of SSD storage.
For a player preparing to build or buy a new gaming PC, this could mean an additional 24 to 30 euros built into the machine’s price. However, this remains only a proposal from rights-holder representatives and must still be debated within the commission responsible for setting the scales, according to L’Informé.
Rights holders also want to raise the amounts applied to new devices already subject to the levy. For a smartphone with more than 512 GB of storage, the remuneration would rise from 16.80 euros to 24 euros including VAT, an increase of about 43 percent.
A tablet with more than 512 GB would go from 16.80 euros to 26.40 euros including VAT, an increase of 57 percent.
Conversely, the proposed scale would be sharply reduced for refurbished devices. A smartphone with more than 512 GB would drop, for example, from 10.08 euros to 2.76 euros including VAT.
According to L’Informé, rights holders hope to raise collections by about 100 million euros per year in total, reaching roughly 350 million euros.
This change would rest in part on new usage studies and a growing consideration of copies made or accessible through cloud services.
The measure is likely to be heavily debated in the computing sector. Although the levy is officially collected from manufacturers and importers, the Ministry of Culture itself acknowledges that it is ultimately passed on to the buyer’s price.
If the new scale were adopted as proposed, the impact on French gamers would be real, with a portable gaming PC potentially carrying 30 euros in private copy remuneration even if its owner never makes private copies of music or films. The proposal must still pass through the private copy commission before it could become applicable, so it is too early to treat the 24 or 30 euros as settled.
