The studios still don't quite get it.

Forum covering all aspects of small gauge cinematography! This is the main discussion forum.

Moderator: Andreas Wideroe

mattias
Posts: 8356
Joined: Wed May 15, 2002 1:31 pm
Location: Gubbängen, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by mattias »

Will2 wrote:I actually don't have a problem with DRM since I generally buy my DVD's (or rent) anyway
so you never make backup copies, you never want to transfer them to computer or media player for watching on the plane or train, or to your apple tv for easy access, and you plan on never ever doing this or anything similar in the future? ok, fair enough, but rest assure you're fairly alone. :-)

/matt
mattias
Posts: 8356
Joined: Wed May 15, 2002 1:31 pm
Location: Gubbängen, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by mattias »

Uppsala BildTeknik wrote:We already do that in sweden. We pay $0.63 for each empty DVD-R (or +R) we buy and $1.02 for each empty DVD-RW (or +RW) we buy.
$0.5 and $0.8 respectively (i guess you sloppily thus wrongfully added vat) but in principle correct. it's just a tax like any tax, but imo less "sick" in this case since there's actually a connection between the product and the way the tax money is used, unlike other sales taxes where you just pay into a black hole.

/matt
User avatar
Uppsala BildTeknik
Senior member
Posts: 2261
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:20 am
Location: Sweden, Alunda
Contact:

Post by Uppsala BildTeknik »

Yep, I included the vat, since everyone who doesen´t have a company has to pay vat on the empty-DVD-fee. ;)

I think is it pretty sick since there is no way telling what the empty DVDs will be used for. I shouldn´t be paying a fee for the DVDs I will use for my family vacation films...
mattias
Posts: 8356
Joined: Wed May 15, 2002 1:31 pm
Location: Gubbängen, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by mattias »

Uppsala BildTeknik wrote:Yep, I included the vat, since everyone who doesen´t have a company has to pay vat on the empty-DVD-fee. ;)
no, the vat is added to the final street price, which is market regulated. it's the manufacturers and resellers who take the hit. besides the vat doesn't go to the copyright fund, it goes into the before mentioned black hole. :-)

/matt
User avatar
Uppsala BildTeknik
Senior member
Posts: 2261
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:20 am
Location: Sweden, Alunda
Contact:

Post by Uppsala BildTeknik »

mattias wrote:no, the vat is added to the final street price
Whick includes the vat, so people still has to pay vat on/for the copyright-fee.
mattias wrote:besides the vat doesn't go to the copyright fund, it goes into the before mentioned black hole.
No, it doesen´t. But it goes out of the pocket from the buyer, so it still has to be paid for. If there was no copyright-fee to be paid the vat on the final street price would be lower.
Will2
Senior member
Posts: 1983
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:18 am
Real name: Will Montgomery
Location: Dallas, TX
Contact:

Post by Will2 »

mattias wrote:
Will2 wrote:I actually don't have a problem with DRM since I generally buy my DVD's (or rent) anyway
so you never make backup copies, you never want to transfer them to computer or media player for watching on the plane or train, or to your apple tv for easy access, and you plan on never ever doing this or anything similar in the future? ok, fair enough, but rest assure you're fairly alone. :-)

/matt
Want and having the legal right to do so are very different.

I actually don't care too much about making backups of DVDs as I've never had one fail, but I certainly want the right to put onto my Apple TV or iPod. I would even pay an extra dollar or two for that right if I had the option.

Perhaps it's semantics, but I have the same perspective as others have expressed; I DO want to copy these endlessly for my use. But as it stands now, I don't have that right (no matter how much I want it) so I don't generally do it.

Right now I put films I've made on my Apple TV and I download TV programs from iTunes every now and again... but I don't buy movies from there due to the crappy quality.

HOWEVER, I can envision a time when playing all these DVDs will be a pain when all we do is play from hard drives, at that point I would become even more frustrated at the situation than anyone.
mattias
Posts: 8356
Joined: Wed May 15, 2002 1:31 pm
Location: Gubbängen, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by mattias »

Uppsala BildTeknik wrote:
mattias wrote:no, the vat is added to the final street price
Whick includes the vat, so people still has to pay vat on/for the copyright-fee
nobody's forcing retailers to pass on the fee to the customers any more than the costs for transportation or whatever. the price is set by the market, not how much the product cost to bring there.

/matt
mattias
Posts: 8356
Joined: Wed May 15, 2002 1:31 pm
Location: Gubbängen, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by mattias »

Will2 wrote:I DO want to copy these endlessly for my use. But as it stands now, I don't have that right (no matter how much I want it) so I don't generally do it
i think you're typically allowed to make backup copies as well as copy/modify it if you have to in order to listen to it. what the industry is hiding behind is the law that forbids breaking the copy protection/encryption, which is an incredibly stupid law since all it means is that people who release their work without copy protection aren't as well protected, while the fair use right of the consumer is being compromised. a law that gives all copyright holders the same level of protection while ensuring extensive fair use rights for consumers would be very nice at this point.

/matt
User avatar
Blue Audio Visual
Posts: 794
Joined: Fri May 05, 2006 7:40 pm
Location: London
Contact:

Post by Blue Audio Visual »

mattias wrote:nobody's forcing retailers to pass on the fee to the customers any more than the costs for transportation or whatever. the price is set by the market, not how much the product cost to bring there.
Swedish retailers are handicapped by the fact that their buy-price must be approaching double that of retailers in other parts of the EU. The $.5 ex VAT tax per DVD is higher than the retail price inc VAT of a DVD here in the UK if you shop around/buy a spindle of 50 etc. Swedish retailers are pretty much forced to pass on the fee, or sell at a loss. Suggesting or implying that the price is purely market led ignores this distortion.

What's the best deal a member of the public can get in Sweden for a spindle of 50 DVD-Rs? Just to satisfy my curiousity...
johnnhud
Posts: 638
Joined: Thu Dec 08, 2005 11:06 pm
Location: Dallas, TX
Contact:

Post by johnnhud »

this came right off Apples website. I think it's relevent to the discussion.

Introducing iTunes Digital Copy
Twentieth Century Fox and Apple today announced iTunes Digital Copy for iTunes, which provides customers who purchase a DVD of a Fox movie title with an additional Digital Copy of the movie. The iTunes Digital Copy can be transferred effortlessly to iTunes and then viewed on a PC or Mac, iPod with video, iPhone or on Apple TV—just like a movie purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store. In fact, the first DVD to debut with iTunes Digital Copy is being released in stores today. It’s the Special Edition DVD premiere of the Family Guy “Star Wars” parody, “Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest,” and the first of many more to come. [Jan 15, 2008]
User avatar
Uppsala BildTeknik
Senior member
Posts: 2261
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2004 7:20 am
Location: Sweden, Alunda
Contact:

Post by Uppsala BildTeknik »

Blue Audio Visual wrote:What's the best deal a member of the public can get in Sweden for a spindle of 50 DVD-Rs? Just to satisfy my curiousity...
Well I´m not sure if this is the best price, but just to take one as an example I looked at Verbatim DVD-R, 16x, 25-pack. They cost 295:- SEK including vat in a computershop with pretty good prices (not a webshop).

That would be €31.39 (or $46.73) for a spindle of 25 good quality DVD-R, vat included. (they didn´t have 50 disc spindles)
Last edited by Uppsala BildTeknik on Wed Jan 16, 2008 12:58 am, edited 1 time in total.
Will2
Senior member
Posts: 1983
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:18 am
Real name: Will Montgomery
Location: Dallas, TX
Contact:

Post by Will2 »

johnnhud wrote:Twentieth Century Fox and Apple today announced iTunes Digital Copy for iTunes, which provides customers who purchase a DVD of a Fox movie title with an additional Digital Copy of the movie.
This is what I was hoping for. That studios would do the right thing and offer it to us without resorting to ripping it.
Jim Carlile
Posts: 927
Joined: Fri Oct 24, 2003 9:59 pm
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Post by Jim Carlile »

Uppsala BildTeknik wrote:Yep, I included the vat, since everyone who doesen´t have a company has to pay vat on the empty-DVD-fee. ;)

I think is it pretty sick since there is no way telling what the empty DVDs will be used for. I shouldn´t be paying a fee for the DVDs I will use for my family vacation films...
In the U.S. they have two different kinds of blank CD's and DVD's for sale: "data," and "audio" or "video."

The "data" ones are about half the price. The reason is that the other ones include a surcharge for a so-called license fee, similar to the blank tape one they used to have for cassettes.

Most people don't know this-- and the discs are interchangeable. You don't need to use the 'audio' blank for audio purposes. Consequently, everyone buys the cheaper ones, unaware of what they are really doing, which is avoiding the surcharge.
Perhaps it's semantics, but I have the same perspective as others have expressed; I DO want to copy these endlessly for my use. But as it stands now, I don't have that right (no matter how much I want it) so I don't generally do it.
You very much DO have the right to make copies or transfer to other media, as long as you have purchased the original copy. There is no law in the U.S. that requires consumers to RE-BUY copyrighted items for their own use.

Now the U.K., that's a different story. This month a law went into effect that prohibits copying digital media. But here in the States, we have several court decisions that frames this right as fair-use-- so far...
User avatar
Blue Audio Visual
Posts: 794
Joined: Fri May 05, 2006 7:40 pm
Location: London
Contact:

Post by Blue Audio Visual »

Jim Carlile wrote:In the U.S. they have two different kinds of blank CD's and DVD's for sale: "data," and "audio" or "video."

The "data" ones are about half the price. The reason is that the other ones include a surcharge for a so-called license fee, similar to the blank tape one they used to have for cassettes.

Most people don't know this-- and the discs are interchangeable. You don't need to use the 'audio' blank for audio purposes. Consequently, everyone buys the cheaper ones, unaware of what they are really doing, which is avoiding the surcharge.
That's not quite the case. The 'Audio' CDRs are typically labelled "For Consumer", and there are plenty of stand-alone HiFi separate CD recorders out there which can only use these. If you put a normal Data CDR into them they won't work.

I'm pretty sure that the reason for the distinction between 'Consumer' and 'Data' is largely historical. The first commercially available mass-market CD Recorders predate commercially available MP3 players, and I don't suppose anyone gave any serious thought to people downloading music off the internet or a world where the ipod has become ubiquitous.

Another reason beyond copyright levys for audio/consumer CDRs being more expensive is pure supply and demand. They manufacture a lot less of them.
mattias
Posts: 8356
Joined: Wed May 15, 2002 1:31 pm
Location: Gubbängen, Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by mattias »

Blue Audio Visual wrote:Swedish retailers are pretty much forced to pass on the fee, or sell at a loss. Suggesting or implying that the price is purely market led ignores this distortion.
nobody's forcing them and they are perfectly free to sell at loss. what they actually do is irrelevant for my point. academic? you bet, but that's the point. :-)
What's the best deal a member of the public can get in Sweden for a spindle of 50 DVD-Rs? Just to satisfy my curiousity...
around 200 sek, which is $30.

/matt
Post Reply