iPad prices start at 516,- EUR in Germany (655,- US Dollar!!!) for the 16GB WLAN Model Jobs replied to a customer's email: "Blame your government. Germany just added a new copyright levy for computers" Computers? The iPad? Copyright levy? You just can legally buy content with the iPad! No way to burn or steal anything - it's crazy they want a fee for nothing.
Haven't heard of this before, but I do know that differences in taxes are the major reason for price increases across different countries.
Jesus Christ, here. Basically, countries that believe that you'll pirate digital media will impose this tax to recompensate for the losses you'd allegedly be inflicting. This is imposed on anything electronic that has hard a harddrive you can put data on.
nuts isn't it? I think I better ask friends in the USA to send it to me than before someone who does not deserve it at all get's my money! Hell, I think actually THIS LEVY IS A KIND OF PIRATING! Robber barons!
Germany is just desperate for money now! With the currency crashing and European Union crisis, they will tax you in every way!
It's not the gouvernment, the Media Industry, the Filmmakers, Musicians and publishers wants the money and they somehow managed to come to this terrible agreement a while ago. The Problem is the little Artists won't see anything of it because the big fishes will get it all at the end. They just claim they had the highest marketshare over the last 20 years so they will be copied most.
That makes no sense. Mainstream media, which comes from the US, would find Germany to be a small share of the global market. Why would they make an obscure deal with Germany's government to share profits when the nation creates a copyright levy? Why would Germany even need the media industry to back them up? All they'd have to do is publish a study with falsified results and people would shut up. And back to the bottom line, with the hundreds of billions that are pooled in each year, 10% of a couple million iPads isn't that big a dent. I'd rather go with Grump's theory.
Germany is the 3rd largest market in $$$ of the Planet. The german BMG was the 3rd largest music company before they sold it 3 years ago. The mother company Bertelsmann is one on the largest media companies of the world. Stuff like american idol comes from them via one of their daughter companies. Don't forget the USA have just 3.5 times more residents than germany. And you also made the mistake to expect the media culture in germany to be identical to the USA. A lot of german productions are regulary in the top 10 here and the german charts are also more dominated by music from the UK than from the US. The whole thing is not political! It's driven 100% by the media companies for DECADES now. The levy has nothing to do with the government at all, it's an direct agreement between hardware companies / retailers and the right management companies. They knew they would possibly lose more money if they go to the courthouse. You had to pay such a fee on all compact cassettes since the 1960s and on video cassettes since the 70s here, later the CDs and DVDs got this fee and now they say it's the hardware which can and will be used for illegal copies. Next step will be USB Sticks.
