In the usual efforts to "double-dip" consumers and make them pay twice for the same offering Norma the dutch rights group has been delivered a major blow.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUKL0810353620080108A Dutch rights organisation which compensates artists for the use of their copyrighted material on Tuesday lost its court bid to remove a government block on new levies on MP3 media players.
The court in The Hague upheld a government freeze on moves to impose new levies, a justice ministry spokesman said.
The Netherlands already has a levy on blank CDs and DVDs but the government says the artists' rights bodies were not distributing the cash efficiently and wanted the problems solved before new levies were created.
"You cannot give such a system the responsibility for a new levy if you know that it is not working properly," a justice ministry spokesman said.
Of course "not working properly" actually means that the artists themselves who created the works that are licenced to the recording giants have not been receiving their share of the royalties cake, instead the cartel are content to collect this revenue and act slowly to distribute it, ensuring they continue to hold power over music creation in general and over the artists who rely on such revenue to pay their bills with.
Levies should not be put into place to prop up the demise of the CD, its the recording industrys job to create products the consumer wishes to purchase, there is no automatic right to steal from consumers.
