Heffingsberichten
In aansluiting op het Nederlandse MP3-heffingendebat, waarin iedereeen wacht op Europa (eerder berichten hier) bericht de EUobserver.com dat “Barroso bows to France on artists' rights”.
European Commission boss Jose Manuel Barroso has kicked into the long grass plans to overhaul EU artists' levies after pressure from French prime minister Dominique de Villepin.
"We need further reflection...we need to do it right and we need a bit more time," Mr Barroso's spokeswoman said on Wednesday (13 December), adding that "we don't have a specific time" for when the topic will come back on the agenda.
The move comes seven days before Brussels was to issue a legal "recommendation" on the levy system, which sees artists' groups skim a fee off every computer or MP3 player sold on the basis they will be used to make unlicensed copies of film or music.
(…) Mr Barroso quashed the McCreevy project - which also had the support of the vast majority of the 23 other EU commissioners except culture commissioner Jan Figel - after receiving a warning shot from Paris on 5 December.
