Culture flat rate

The culture flat rate is a concept for a flat fee that is to be distributed to the rights holders of digital content . In return, the public distribution of digital copies, for example in file sharing networks for private use, is to be legalized.

To implement it, not only the (German) copyright law would have to be changed, but also the copyright of the European Union and various international treaties. This particularly concerns digital content that is consumed, such as images, texts, games and films. As a rule, corporate software is not one of these cultural assets , although the line is difficult to draw here, as programs such as Microsoft Office and Photoshop are used both in large corporations and in leisure time.

background

Due to the availability of the Internet and the possibility of low-loss data compression , it has become common practice to exchange digital content - such as music , films, newspapers, magazines, books, pictures - between users, which mostly have no personal relationship to one another. According to copyright law, this is an act that requires the consent of the rights holder and is illegal without this consent. As a result, the duplicators and distributors make themselves liable to prosecution and cause loss of income for the rights holders if the consumers would have otherwise bought the copyrighted products.

Movements that advocate Internet freedom argue in this context that this exchange cannot be prevented for technical reasons such as effective anonymization techniques on the Internet without more or less total surveillance. We are therefore looking for alternative concepts to copyright in order to still guarantee fair payment for people who do work.

Another argument in favor of the culture flat rate is the artificial shortage of intangible goods that is created by copyright. Providers such as Spotify or Netflix are trying to make offers similar to the culture flat rate for consumers, so that consumers should hardly notice an artificial shortage. In practice, however, it is almost impossible for small independent artists with limited budgets to even be included in these portals. Several established artists consider streaming services to be unprofitable and have had their songs removed from the relevant platforms. The customer therefore often finds a completely incomplete catalog.

The idea of ​​the culture flat rate is, on the one hand, to legalize these everyday copying activities and, on the other hand, to levy a fee that is distributed to the rights holders - as compensation for the use of their works.

For the culture flat rate model, a prize was awarded on May 5, 2006 in the "Online" section of the alternative media prize.

This idea is based on the principle of private copying and the associated flat fee . This is in Germany since the 1960s on blank tapes , CD - and DVD blanks, and to the corresponding recorder levied.

The idea of ​​the culture flat rate also came about because of criticism of the current DRM practice and the associated control of users. With this, the consumer can download works from a legal provider, but is prevented by technical measures from the further dissemination that the rights holder does not want, but also from the legitimate use and creation of a private copy. Considerations from organizations such as the TCPA or their successors, the Trusted Computing Group , also aimed to make computers immune to copy protection bypasses. On the other hand, DRM systems like Marlin rely on being compatible with as many devices as possible and also enabling private copies. However, DRM could be useful for a culture flat rate, since DRM systems enable more reliable statistics on usage behavior through monitoring. However, DRM systems could not work if the file sharing of culture media were legalized and thus fundamentally contradict the concept of the culture flat rate.

Concept of implementation

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Depending on the concept, the flat fee should be paid for every user of the Internet or for every connection. When paying per Internet connection, some concepts provide for payment via the respective Internet provider who provides the connection. The sum of all amounts from the flat rate culture flat rate is then distributed to the rights holders. The basis of the distribution could be how often the respective work is used. This could be approximated using download numbers or observing a sample of the population. Proponents of the culture flat rate expect that this simpler and more detailed recording will enable a more exact and thus fairer distribution compared to the current data collection by GEMA . In order to make the system more equitable for the other side, the user, there is the idea of ​​staggering the contribution depending on the speed of online access and the type of billing (time tariff / volume tariff / flat rate).

Compulsory levy

The main criticism of this model is the obligation of all users of broadband access to pay this fee, even if they do not wish to receive protected content. In some cases, however, there are already flat fees in favor of GEMA, for example when buying blank media such as CDs, which could be dispensed with with the introduction of a culture flat rate.

Risk of fraud

Critics also see a risk of fraud through manipulated statistics when determining the distribution key - anonymous processes in particular are susceptible to a distortion of the picture of consumer behavior, for example through massive downloads of their own content or strong advertising of files that then contain obviously unusable material just to get through the clicks to get money ( clickbaiting ). There is no technical solution that could guarantee anonymity and fraud protection.

The problem of manipulability also exists with the traditional model, for example through fake CD bulk purchases; with a culture flat rate, however, the phenomenon would not only be limited to large record companies / publishers; almost every private person would be able to manipulate the system.

Administrative burden

Another aspect is the great administrative effort: In order for a reasonably fair distribution to be possible, a very large database would have to be recorded in order to then pass on a proportion of the money to the artists. Services such as BigChampagne currently offer approaches to compiling such statistics . It is also suggested to build on the existing GEMA infrastructure.

The collection of the consumer tax could, in turn, be handled comparatively easily via the Internet service provider , i.e. the telecommunications company providing the Internet connection. They already have all the necessary customer data so that no separate administration infrastructure has to be set up.

privacy

Since the determination of the shares of the individual artists requires a recording of the usage behavior, there are also concerns about data protection. The collected personal or group-related data could be misused if the data were collected at a central point.

Examples

The Isle of Man government wants to try out a culture flat rate. The Chaos Computer Club proposes the variant of the Kulturwertmark for implementation.

literature

• Marina Artino u. a .: cultures of copy. A student project . Siegen University Press, Siegen 2007.
• Alexander Roßnagel / Silke Jandt / Christoph Schnabel: Kulturflatrate. A constitutionally permissible alternative model for artist remuneration? , in: MMR 2010, pp. 8 to 12.
• Carine Bernault / Audrey Lebois: Peer-to-peer File Sharing and Literary and Artistic Property. A Feasibility Study Regarding a System of Compensation for the Exchange of Works via the Internet . University of Nantes 2005.
• Philippe Aigrain: Sharing: Culture and the Economy in the Internet Age . Amsterdam Univ. Press 2012.
• William W. Fisher: Promises to Keep: Technology, Law and the Future of Entertainment . Stanford University Press 2004, Chapter 6.

Web links

• "Berlin Declaration" calls for music flat rate for Internet (English)
• Culture flat rate at attac ( Memento from August 28, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
• Private Copy Initiative
• Netzpolitik-Podcast 075: Die Kulturflatrate - Two hour long interview with media researcher Volker Grassmuck
• Study by the Greens on the feasibility of a cultural flat rate according to German and European law (PDF file; 744 kB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rolf Schwartmann / Christian-Henner Hentsch: The constitutional limits of the copyright debate . In: ZUM . tape 2012 , p. 759 .
2. ↑ Report ( Memento from January 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) about the receipt of the Alternative Media Prize by Fairsharing.de ( Memento from May 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ The model of culture flat rate is in the campaign policy paper Fair Sharing - The Kulturflatrate ( Memento of 6 February 2010 at the Internet Archive described) and as an alternative to DRM required
4. ↑ The idea of ​​a culture flat rate. In: Federal Center for Political Education. June 13, 2014, accessed May 14, 2020 .  
5. ↑ Jeanette's record company threatens Gracia. In: Rheinische Post . April 14, 2005, accessed February 17, 2012 .  
6. ↑ Isle of Man wants to try out culture flat rate. In: heise online. January 19, 2009, accessed February 17, 2012 .