The decision by the European Court of Justice could potentially result in printer and OEM cartridge prices rising to all-time-high levels for consumers.
PCWorld, Computing.co.uk and V3 have all reported on the decision from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) yesterday, which saw a German copyright-collector society win a case against OEMs including Canon, Epson, Fujitsu, HP, Kyocera and Xerox concerning the printing of copyrighted texts on their devices that could have a defining impact on both the printing industry and the cartridge remanufacturing aftermarket.
In essence, the case was brought against the OEMs by VG Wort because, under European Union law, as PCWorld noted, “authors and other rights holders have the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit reproduction of their protected works”, and the collector society argued that this would include “private copies” of such reproductions, with the ECJ agreeing and ruling “it is legal for countries to impose a levy on printer manufacturers in order to compensate rights holders for unauthorized reproduction of their work”.
PCWorld added that in many cases printing private copies of copyrighted work is permitted, but if national authorities “decide to permit exceptions”, copyright holders must receive “fair compensation”, with VG Wort requesting that all the previously named OEMs provide information “on the nature and quantity of printers that they have sold since 2011”, with Kyocera, Epson and Xerox targeted specifically in Germany.
The ECJ had been referred to the case by the Federal Court of Justice in Germany, and the ECJ said it would be “open” to Germany implementing the system, where owners of any printer would “contribute to compensating authors for harm suffered by reproduction of their protected works”, though this would predictably result in a levy on the OEMs, who would in turn pass this on to consumers in the shape of steep printer and consumable price increases.
Whilst the amount that can be levied has been limited by the court, which noted that “the overall amount of fair compensation must not be substantially different from the fixed amount owed for the reproduction obtained through the use of one single device”, EU countries might take into account whether any measures had been taken to stop such printing when “determining the right’s holder’s compensation”.
The ECJ’s ruling on the case stated: “It is open to the member states to put in place a system in which fair compensation is paid by the persons in possession of a device contributing, in a non-autonomous manner, to the single process of reproduction of the protected work or other subject-matter on the given medium.”
“While no new concepts for the protection of intellectual property are needed, the current law on copyright and related rights should be adapted and supplemented to respond adequately to economic realities such as new forms of exploitation. In certain cases of exceptions or limitations, rights holders should receive fair compensation to compensate them adequately for the use made of their protected works or other subject-matter.
Computing.co.uk raised the point that OEMs, on top of increasing prices, may elect to “withdraw from Europe entirely”, and that the ruling may result in the “prospect of buyers sourcing printers from outside the EU to avoid the copyright levy”.
V3 meanwhile added the point that “because the decision has been handed down from the ECJ and is binding across all member states”, it now “opens up the possibility for all copyright holders [from the EU] to demand levies” from OEMs, and the “potential costs […] could be huge”.
Editor and Publisher of The Recycler, David Connett, commented on the ruling:“On first reading this might be considered a burden too far for printer OEMs selling in the European Union, especially for some of the emerging brands like Pantum. Ultimately the costs will be passed on to the consumer, and this will inevitably lead to high-priced printers and consumables, and possibly contribute to a further decline in OEM printer-related revenues. Good news for European remanufacturers, and it will be interesting to see if this judgement will impact on remanufactured and cloned cartridges imported into the European Union.
“As a writer, I won’t hold my breath that this judgement will make me rich and bring forward my retirement date. My last royalty cheque was £8.62, about €10 or $12.”
What are your thoughts on this ruling? Do you think it has huge