Speaking
at a press conference in Brussels, McCreevy said he hopes that the consultation will solve the discrepancies caused by the application of copyright levies.
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| Charlie McCreevy |
The Commission had suspended work on harmonizing levies over a year ago as McCreevy believed that there was no hope of finding a common way forward. But he now thinks the time is right for an open and constructive debate.
He said: "What I would like to see coming out of this consultation process are ideas and a willingness to relate the level of levies to the loss suffered through private copying."
He elaborated this through an example. "A computer printer in one Member State has a levy of €70 imposed on it. Levies on a 4 gigabyte MP3 player, for example, range from zero in one Member State to over €15.00 in another. What should be the correct level to compensate for the loss due to private copying?" he asked.
The consultation period will end on April 18 and McCreevy will hold a public meeting in June to try and find common ground.
Copyright levies are a contentious issue in Europe. Many jurisdictions impose copyright levies on devices that enable consumers to breach copyright laws to compensate the creators of copyright-protected work for their potential loss of income.
Copyright levies have traditionally been applied in many European countries on recording and reprographic equipment. But a number of disputes have arisen over whether these levies also apply to more modern IT devices.
In the past year there have been a number of significant cases in Germany. In Germany early last year, a German court
ruled
that printers will not have to pay copyright levies to a collecting society of authors and publishers. This decision was upheld by the First Civil Senate of the German Federal Court of Justice which also
reiterated
that it would not apply copyright levies to normal, everyday computer printers.
