Hacker News Reader

> Attempts to levy a tax on blank cassettes didn’t get traction in the UK.

In Slovenia, we pay a tax for blank media and audiovisual recorders. The law was put in place in 2020.

Source: https://www.uradni-list.si/glasilo-uradni-list-rs/vsebina/20...

Several countries have that tax. Here in Sweden we pay about $10 for every new computer, mobile phone, SSD etc just because we might store music on them. Quite absurd.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy

Whenever I hear about these levies, I always wonder what's stopping someone from spinning up a 'record label' and attempting to claim the funds.

Don't know about other countries but in France it's a private monopoly granted by the law, you can't create one.

Not sure how that's legal either with antitrust laws but that's low it works.

(And it's as opaque as it sounds)

Private monopoly in Sweden too. But at least they're not hiding the fact that 22.5 % of the money they collect go to their own administration costs rather than to artists...

https://issuu.com/ymrkommunikation/docs/23-1643_copyswede_fb...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com