From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!seismo!hao!hplabs!hp-pcd!tw
Newsgroups: net.music
Title: Re: Re: tape tax - (nf)
Article-I.D.: hp-pcd.690
Posted: Fri Feb 18 18:01:38 1983
Received: Sun Feb 20 10:46:04 1983

#R:nmtvax:-19200:hp-pcd:6600003:000:1211
hp-pcd!tw    Feb 18 15:49:00 1983


        An additional consideration:  what  reason  is  there  to
        believe  that  such a tax would ever find its way back to
        those who deserve  the  royalty?   Even  if  some  record
        companies got money back they would probably be the large 
        corporations,  not  independents and small concerns.  How
        could  you  know  how  much  to   distribute   to   which
        companies?   Who  would  know what those tapes really got
        used for?  I'd bet that lots of tapes get used for taping 
        obscure, out of print albums from small labels which went 
        out of business long ago.  Is it fair to charge me a  tax
        for  taping that, then take that money (whatever was left
        after government distribution overhead, if any) and  send
        n  percent  of it to Warner or someone?  Also, what about
        people (like me) who buy an album, then tape it to have a 
        copy to play in the  car?   I'm  not  about  to  buy  two
        copies!  
        
        I agree that it isn't fair to copy someone's work without 
        paying for it, but I don't see how a tax  on  blank  tape
        will help anything.  
        
        Tw Cook