Copyright Tariff

[Kris]

I just received my October statement from iTunes and one of my clients had some sales from Australia. Interesting to note that after Apple took their bite, 5% of the net was held back to pay Australian Copyright Tariff. Japan has a similar tax but I din't know Australia did too.

Anyone know anything about this?

[astrovic]

the question interests me so I set about trying to find an answer...without any direct luck.

I've never heard of a tariff being placed on the sale of music, in the traditional sense of a government levy. I'm not aware of any government imposed charge in relation to the sale of music by Australiana rtists/copyright holders. Some googling didn't advance my knowledge much either, but the term "Copyright Tariff" drew a complete blank in google Australia, which suggests it isn't a term used in practice (except, it seems, by itunes). I asked one of the other solicitors here, who does a lot of intellectual property work, but he looked at me like I was making stuff up (again).

My first reaction was it was another term for the payment of royalties collected by APRA, but this could be wrong.

I checked out the itunes website, but typical of such sites it was long on marketing spin and short on useful hard facts.

Sorry I can't be of much more help than that. I'd be curious to know where this money was ending up!

[Kris]

It's only 3.5 cents us but still....where is it going, and why would APRA collect a royalty when I am collecting full net payment anyway?

[astrovic]

That's why I thought it couldn't be APRA...maybe it is a tariff imposed by the US? They seem to like taxing the import of anything going into their country...