The dutch government is about to approve a proposal of a Dutch copyright foundation which wants to add 25 euro of extra taxes on every MP3 player sold here. This should compensate the missed income caused by illegal MP3s. Well well well, what a great idea!
Besides the fact that it is absolutly ridiculous to let people pay royalties before even playing a song, this will also cause serious problems for the dutch electronics industry.
From january 1st 2007, every MP3 player will rise 25 euro in price. Oh no, let me rephrase that: from january 1st 2007, every MP3 player in the Netherlands will rise 25 euri in price.
So, I guess you don’t have to be a genious to understand what will happen…
Exactly: everybody will buy a MP3 player somewhere else. Belgium and Germany are only a short drive away and offcourse we also have the webshops which will be happy to deliver that new iPod to our home address.
In my opinion, there is only one solution for all the copyright problems we are currently facing: lower the price of the music! I just can’t understand why the record labels still don’t get it. Let’s get rid of the DRM and charge reasonable prices for mp3 files! That’s the only way to boost the online music sales and it will prevent a lot of people from downloading ‘illegal mp3s’.