Spanish Parliament Approves Digital Tax

From Howell Llewellyn, Billboard:

The Spanish music industry received a belated $46 million Christmas present on Thursday when Parliament approved a new digital tax in its last full session before the general elections on March 9.

The so-called "digital canon" will apply to MP3 and MP4 players, mobile phones with MP3 recording capacity, and USB memory cards, and is expected to come into effect Jan. 15. It will apply a small charge to digital gadgets capable of recording music, film, photocopies, or any other form of intellectual property.

The Spanish government estimates that of the €100-115 million ($144-166 million) of "canon" that will be collected per year, some €32 million ($46 million) will go to the music industry. The figure is 100% greater than the current music industry "canon" charged on blank CDs, DVDs, CD and DVD recorders, printers and Xerox machines.

Labels' body Promusicae president Antonio Guisasola says, "this is a victory for the music industry, it is justice in the making. The [intellectual property] law forces us to live with private copying [of music by consumers], but without being compensated for loss of income [through non-purchase of music]. Now this will change."

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