'Digital tax' applied to tablets, pen-drives, blank CDs and all other recording equipment

ROYALTIES for audio-visual artists will be paid through an additional tax on technology capable of recording records, films and books now that a law drafted during the previous socialist government's reign has come into force.

Mobile telephones with recording functions will be taxed with an extra €1.10 on the purchase price, whilst USB pen-drives and external hard drives by 24 cents.

Tablets will be taxed at €3.15 at the point of sale; video, DVD, cassette and CD recorders by €5.45 and all other external recording devices by €6.45.

Only one tax will apply, meaning a tablet, laptop or desktop computer will not be levied twice if they have more than one recording function.

Blank CDs, cassettes, DVDs and video tapes will attract a tax of between eight and 28 cents, whilst printers will be levied at €4.50 to €5.25 and CD recording devices by between 33 cents and €1.86.

This means it will be the manufacturers who pay for royalties to producers and artists through the so-called 'digital tax', although some leeway will be granted for relief for 'export or intra-regional delivery' or for 'exclusively professional use', both of which are defined within the law text but have not been detailed in the media as yet.

Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, government spokesman, said the 'digital tax' had been approved by 'most' of the opposition parties in Parliament, and many said it was 'about time' and had 'come too late already'.

The Surfers' Association and the Internet Users' Association have criticised the tax, saying they were not consulted, whilst the Spain-wide 'watchdog', FACUA-Consumers in Action says the additional fee will 'only benefit big companies and create extra costs for customers'.

Another major consumer group, the OCU, said the digital tax was 'unfair', 'out of date' and 'discriminatory', as well as a way of 'making the consumer guilty by default'.

But the Association for the Development of Intellectual Property (ADEPI) championed the move, saying it 'resolves a situation that was out of reach at European law level' and calculating the likely total clawed back per annum as around €5 million.

The Association of Media Users also praised the fact that the cost to the arts industries of music and film being copied for personal use would be passed onto manufacturers and retailers.

Finally, though, the Multi-SectorAssociation of Electronics, Information Technology, Communications Media and Digital Content Companies (AMETIC) criticised the government for not taking into account damages suffered by authors, artists and all other arts creators when it set the new tariffs, and said the sums should have been discussed later after talking to those affected and set by Royal Decree, or Bill of Law.