Flat fee

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The flat-rate fee (colloquially the copyright fee , in Switzerland blank data carrier fee , in Austria known as storage media fee ) is

  • remuneration to compensate for copyright claims,
  • remuneration for copying and making available to the public of copyrighted goods and goods.

It is calculated as a surcharge on the price of devices or media for making or storing copies (§54 Copyright Act), as a fee for operating such devices (§54c and §53a UrhG) and for making protected goods publicly available (§52a and Section 27 (2) UrhG).

The flat fee replaces the payment of each individually provided service with a flat fee, but without legalizing the duplication, making accessible or use of the goods in any case. Rather, it is a compensation for legal private copies and legal accessibility, illegal black copies should not be compensated. When determining the tariff, the collecting societies analyze user behavior at regular intervals and use this to calculate the amount of the levy.

The central office for private transfer rights (ZPÜ for short) is responsible for collecting the flat-rate fee from device manufacturers and importers . This distributes the remuneration revenue to its shareholders (including GEMA , VG Wort and VG Bild-Kunst ). These in turn distribute part of the income to their members, as they can be the authors of the reproduced works.

Since almost every technical device can produce digital copies today, the number of products affected is almost impossible to overlook, making it difficult to set tariffs and enforce the payment of taxes. At the same time, the importance of private copying is declining due to changes in media usage such as music streaming . Therefore, in the 2018 coalition agreement, the German government decided to reform the system and make it technology-neutral.

history

The Federal Constitutional Court has ruled the former blank tape levy already in 1971 regarding that the fixed levy is admissible.

Current rates in Germany

All tariff information without sales tax .

Remuneration from manufacturers of devices and media

  • Reprographic equipment
    • Scanners from January 1, 2008: € 12.50
    • Thermal and ink faxes from January 1, 2008: € 5.00
    • Laser fax from January 1st, 2008: € 10.00
    • Ink printer from January 1st, 2008: € 5.00
    • Ink multifunction devices from January 1st, 2008: € 15.00
    • Laser printer from January 1st, 2008: € 12.50
    • Laser multifunction devices and copiers from January 1, 2008 (if necessary, additional annual operator fee )
      up to 14 pages per minute: 25.00 €
      up to 39 pages per minute: € 50.00
      40 pages / minute or more: € 87.50
Members of the manufacturers' association BITKOM receive a discount of 20% (overall contract for reprographic equipment).
  • PC : € 13.19
    • Business PC: € 4.00
    • small mobile PC: € 10.63
  • Tablet computer : € 8.75
    • Business tablets: € 3.50
  • burner
    • External CD burner : € 2.50
    • External DVD burner : € 2.50
    • Burners intended for installation, from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2010: € 1.88
  • Mobile phones: € 6.25
    • Business mobile phone: € 3.13
  • Digital chip-based storage media ( memory cards , USB sticks, etc.)
    • From July 1, 2012 to December 31, 2019: € ​​0.14 for USB sticks and memory cards up to and including 8 GB storage capacity
    • From July 1, 2012 to December 31, 2019: € ​​0.30 for USB sticks and memory cards with a storage capacity greater than 8 GB
    • from January 1, 2020: € 0.30 for USB sticks and memory cards
  • Digital optical storage media (CD, DVD and Bluray blanks) per piece
    • CD-R: € 0.0125
    • CD-RW: € 0.025
    • DVD +/- R 4.7 GB: € 0.025
    • DVD +/- RW 4.7 GB: € 0.05
    • DVD-RAM 4.7 GB: € 0.05
    • DVD-RAM 9.4 GB: € 0.10
    • DVD Double Sided 9.4 GB: € 0.10
    • DVD Double Layer / Dual Layer 8.5 GB: € 0.05
    • Blu-ray 25 GB from January 1, 2012: To be determined, the tariff from January 1, 2008 of € 3.473 per piece has been canceled
  • Hard drives
    • External hard drives: € 4.44
    • Business hard drives: € 1.33
  • Consumer electronics products:
    • Video recorder: € 2.00
    • Cassette recorder: € 0.50
    • DVD recorder without recording function on VHS cassette and without built-in memory: € 3.50
    • DVD recorder with recording function on VHS cassette, but without built-in memory: € 3.50
    • DVD recorder without recording function on VHS cassette, but with built-in memory: € 12.00
    • DVD recorder with recording function on VHS cassette and with built-in memory € 12.00
    • Set-top boxes with built-in storage: € 12.00
    • Multimedia hard drives with recording function: € 12.00
    • TV sets with built-in memory: € 12.00
    • MiniDisc recorder: € 1.00
    • CD recorder: € 1.00
    • MP3 player: € 1.50
    • MP4 player: € 2.50
    • Set-top boxes without built-in memory, but with a recording function on an external local storage medium: € 1.25
    • TV sets without built-in memory, but with a recording function on an external local storage medium: € 1.25
  • Smartwatches: € 1.50
  • Older storage media or blank media
    • Blank audio cassettes, DAT cassettes, minidisks, audio CD-R and audio CD-RW from January 1, 2008: € 0.0614 per hour, e.g. B. for 50 CD blanks of 80 minutes € 4.09.
    • Empty VHS cassettes from January 1, 2008: € 0.087 per playing hour.

Remuneration from device operators

  • Compensation for copiers from copy shops
    • Close to the university (up to 500 m) 2013: € 160.00, 2014: € 166.00
    • in university cities 2013: € 119.00, 2014: € 124.00
    • in locations without a university: 2013: € 88.00, 2014: € 91.00
  • Remuneration for copiers from other operators
    • in university buildings 2013: € 405.00, 2014: € 418.00
    • in generally open libraries 2013: € 183.00, 2014: € 190.00
    • other locations 2013: € 41.50, 2014: € 43.30
  • Remuneration for copies at general and vocational schools
    • Calendar year 2011: € 7,300,000.00
    • Calendar year 2012: € 7,800,000.00
    • Calendar year 2013: € 8,500,000.00
    • Calendar year 2014: € 9,000,000.00
To be paid jointly by all federal states to the collecting societies Wort, Musikedition and the central office for photocopying in schools.
  • Sending copies, e.g. B. some book pages, the libraries to their customers
    • Schoolchildren € 1.00, private individuals € 3.00, companies € 12.00

Remuneration due to public access

  • Remuneration for making teaching and research accessible to the public (e.g. intranet at schools) from all federal states to the collecting society
    • For schools from August 1, 2009 to July 31, 2013: € 1,760,000.00
    • For universities for 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012: € 731,000.00 + € 800,000.00 + € 1,000,000.00 + € 1,000,000.00.

Compensation for renting and lending without the intention of making a profit

  • Remuneration for public renting and lending without the intention of making a profit (libraries, works libraries) from all federal states to the collecting society
    • 2010 and 2011: € 16,799,139.00 each
    • 2012: € 16,933,532.00
    • 2013: € 17,069,000.00
    • 2014: € 17,222,621.00

Situation in other countries

In Luxembourg and the United Kingdom , there is no flat-rate charge on storage media. Various online retailers specializing in storage media have therefore established themselves in Luxembourg and serve the entire European domestic market from there.

In Finland , flat-rate levies on devices and storage media were abolished as of December 31, 2014. Since 2015, compensation for private copies has been made from the state budget.

In Switzerland , SUISA charges fees for blank CDs and DVDs and MP3 players.

In Austria , Austro Mechana, as a sister company of AKM, charges flat-rate fees ( empty cassette remuneration ) for sound carriers.

In Hungary , the collecting society artisjus charges fees for blank CDs and DVDs. Charged products are marked with a sticker, which is similar to a tax stamp.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Pro Helvetia receives cultural support for young talent and the competence to work out its own strategy. Accessed January 31, 2018 .
  2. ↑ §54 UrhG Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (juris online), accessed on July 2, 2018.
  3. ↑ Federal Government: Position of the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Germany on the "Strategy for a Digital Single Market for Europe" of the European Commission, 2015 (p. 17). Retrieved December 27, 2018 .
  4. ↑ BVMI: The Federal Association of the Music Industry forecasts a sharp decline in audio CDs and downloads as templates for private copies to 25% in 2022. Accessed December 27, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Coalition Agreement 2018 of the Federal Government: "We want to put the system of remuneration for legally permitted uses on a new basis." (Paragraph 6219). Retrieved December 27, 2018 .
  6. ↑ BVerfG, decision of July 7, 1971, Az. 1 BvR 775/66, BVerfGE 31, 255 - Private tape reproductions.
  7. ↑ Collecting Society Wort. Collecting Society Bild-Kunst. Notice of setting a tariff. December 2008, accessed December 8, 2013.
  8. ↑ Manufacturers / importers of devices and storage media. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  9. ↑ ZPÜ .
  10. ↑ Bitkom comes to an agreement with the exploiters on the copyright levy for computers. ( CNET ).
  11. ↑ ZPÜ
  12. ↑ a b Smartphone handover: Gema now also collects for cell phones . In: Spiegel Online . December 3, 2015 ( spiegel.de [accessed December 27, 2018]).
  13. ↑ ZPÜ: Tariff ZPÜ external burners. Retrieved December 27, 2018 .
  14. ↑ ZPÜ , accessed on December 27, 2018.
  15. ^ ZPÜ: ZPÜ tariff for cell phones. Retrieved December 27, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Common tariff of the central office for private transfer rights, VG Wort and VG Bild-Kunst on the remuneration according to §§54, 54a UrhG for USB sticks memory cards from June 24, 2019, accessed on December 6, 2019.
  17. ↑ ZPÜ tariff , accessed on December 27, 2018.
  18. ↑ Abolition of the common tariff of the central office for private transfer rights, VG Wort and VG Bild-Kunst on remuneration according to §§54, 54a UrhG for storage media of the type Blu-ray 25 GB from August 5, 2013, accessed on December 7, 2013 .
  19. ↑ ZPÜ tariff , accessed on December 27, 2018.
  20. ↑ Common tariff of the central office for private transfer rights, VG Wort and VG Bild-Kunst on the remuneration according to §§ 54, 54a UrhG for consumer electronics products of May 3, 2019, accessed on December 6, 2019
  21. ↑ Common tariff of the Central Office for Private Transfer Rights (ZPÜ), VG Wort, VG Bild-Kunst on remuneration according to §§ 54, 54a UrhG for Smartwatches from October 22, 2019, accessed on December 6, 2019
  22. ↑ Tariff of the central office for private transfer rights on the remuneration according to §§54, 54a UrhG for audio empty cassettes VHS empty cassettes ... of March 3, 2011, accessed on December 7, 2013.
  23. ^ Verwertungsgesellschaft WORT Munich Verwertungsgesellschaft Bild-Kunst Bonn Announcement on the establishment of a tariff, remuneration for copiers from August 13, 2013, accessed on December 8, 2013.
  24. ↑ General contract for the granting and remuneration of claims according to §53 UrhG. In: lehrerfortbildung-bw.de . Retrieved December 8, 2013.
  25. ↑ Amendment contract to compensate for copyright claims for the direct mailing of copies by publicly accessible facilities according to §53a UrhG of January 6, 2010, accessed on December 8, 2013.
  26. ↑ General contract for the remuneration of claims according to § 52 a UrhG of July 14, 2010, accessed on December 8, 2013.
  27. ↑ Compensation Agreement of December 21, 2010, accessed December 8, 2013.
  28. ↑ General contract on the settlement of claims according to §27 Abs. 2 UrhG (library royalty) of June 29, 2011, accessed on December 8, 2013.
  29. ↑ For example, Tomdax, Damrotech or Nierle are mentioned.
  30. ^ Finland - New regulation for remuneration for private copies, Anette Alén-Savikko (Institute for International Business Law, KATTI, University of Helsinki). , accessed December 6, 2019
  31. ^ SUISA, Questions & Answers .
  32. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento from March 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Austromechana on the copyright levy