Copyswede Seeks New Levy on Hard Drives and Mobile Phones
July 23, 2010
In Sweden, income generated from a copy fee built in to the price of recordable CDs and DVDs has almost halved in the past two years. I n 2007, sales of blank discs generated 200 million kronor ($28 million USD) for artists, compared to just 113 million kronor ($15 million USD) in 2009. Copyswede, the umbrella organization for copyright groups that administers that fee, believes the plunge in revenue can be attributed to a shift in the way music and films are now consumed. Copyswede distributes the funds generated from fees that are included in the prices of recordable hard drives, mp3 players, and blank discs. The organization is pushing for legislation that will extend the fees to other technologies such as hard drive. Copyswede’s proposed fee would add around 100 kronor to the cost of a mobile phone with 32 gigabytes of memory.