Copyright levies rules postponed

The European Commission has delayed adopting a proposal aimed at cleaning up member states’ patchwork of different rules for copyright levies on blank recording media and digital music file players such as Apple’s iPod.

A Commission spokeswoman said on 13 December that it had decided "more reflection is required on this complex issue". When it was ready, it would be back on the Commission’s agenda, she added.

European Internal Market Charlie McCreevy was scheduled to present a recom-mendation on copyright levies for adoption at the Commission meeting on 20 December.

The recommendation would have enabled the Commission to check to see if national copyright fees imposed in countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands to compensate artists for private copying were a barrier to trade across the single market.

The delay was attacked by electronic media industry represent-atives, who accused Commission President José Manuel Barroso of bowing to pressure from French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin to shelve the proposal.

Mark MacGann, spokesman for the Copyright Levies Reform Alliance and director-general of the European digital industries association EICTA, said: "European industry is deeply disturbed by the European Commission’s apparent about-face on the planned reform of copyright levies".

In a letter to Barroso sent on 5 December, Villepin wrote that levies for private copying represented "a not insignificant source of revenue" for creative artists. He said the issue was causing "strong emotions in the artistic community" and asked Barroso to intervene to "defer" the adoption of the recommendation in order to have a debate in the Council of Ministers.

The European Commission has delayed adopting a proposal aimed at cleaning up member states’ patchwork of different rules for copyright levies on blank recording media and digital music file players such as Apple’s iPod.