rates triple for mobiles, and now even affect smartwatches

As indicated in Civio, the BOE published yesterday includes a decree that modifies the digital canon. This tax indicates the amounts to be paid for each device capable of offering copies of works subject to intellectual property. The new digital canon establishes especially high rates for mobiles, and also has new beneficiaries.

late fees. In 2017, the decree law with the (controversial) current compensation system. At that time, “transitory” rates were defined and it was indicated that it would take a year to establish the final rate by type of device. Those rates have now been defined… four and a half years late.

Hard drives drop. Some of the rates are maintained with respect to the provisional ones, and there is good news in the case of external and internal hard drives, whose rates are reduced. It also slightly lowers the rate in the case of single-function printers.

Until 7/1/2023

From 7/1/2023

Recordable/Rewritable CD

0,08

0,08

DVD/Blu-ray RECORDABLE/REWritable

0,28

0,21

USB flash drive larger than 64.01 GB

0,24

0,24

Non-smartphone with MP3

1,10

1,10

smartphone

1,10

3,25

Smart watch

N.a.

2,50

tablet

3,15

3,75

HDD externo > 6 TB / SSD Interno > 1 TB

6,45

4,00

Internal HDD > 6TB / Internal SSD > 1TB

5,45

3,00

multifunction printer

5,25

5,25

printer

4,50

4,00

raise the mobiles. However, mobile devices go up in price. Before, only a single category was contemplated, but now the non-intelligent ones with MP3 playback are distinguished – the modest feature phones— from smartphones. The first have a fee of 1.10 euros. In the second, much more sold, the rate is almost multiplied by three and becomes 3.25 euros.


Novelty: smart watches. In 2017, smartwatches were not contemplated, but now they are included in the BOE, which imposes a fee of 2.50 euros for these devices even though the consumption of content protected by intellectual property is much more limited on these devices.

Newspapers will charge fees. As indicated in Civio, the other great novelty of this decree is that it changes who distributes the proceeds. There are three main categories: video, audio and books or similar. In the latter is where a new beneficiary is introduced, which are the newspapers.

Distribution according to device. The decree establishes what part of each device goes to each beneficiary: in smart watches, for example, only 10% goes to publications, and the majority goes to audio and video. In video, one third is for the creator, another for the performers and another for the producers.

In books, 55% goes to authors and 45% to publishers. And in audio, 45% goes to authors, 27.5% to performers or artists, and the other 27.5% to producers. management societies are in charge of distributing these amounts.

Image: Javier Pastor with Bing Image Creator

In Xataka | The Government wants to raise the Canon Digital up to 200%, although downloads have been going down for years

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.