Authors’ association may take private copying levy fight to court

The Estonian Authors’ Association has not ruled out taking the dispute over higher private copying fees to court, telling ERR it has not been invited to talks promised by Justice and Digital Affairs Minister Liisa-Ly Pakosta and that the draft legislation remains stalled.

The levy is collected on devices such as smartphones, computers and other storage equipment. It compensates authors, performers and producers for the right to copy their work for personal use.

A draft sent for consultation by the Justice Ministry in spring would raise the fee for a smartphone from 3.50 euros to six euros. In summer, Pakosta said the proposal had stalled because authors and businesses had different expectations. She said the parties would be brought together in August to seek a compromise.

Estonian Authors’ Association head Mati Kaalep said the association had not received an invitation. He said he wrote to the ministry on August 25 to ask whether talks were planned and offered to take part, but no invitation followed.

Kaalep said the association’s main concern was that the proposed increases had not advanced. He said a six-euro fee for smartphones could be acceptable to authors, but the increases for other devices would be too small. Some fees would rise by only 50 cents, he said, while the consumer price index has increased by nearly 50 percent since the current rates were set.

The association says the existing rates no longer reflect price increases or comparisons with other European countries. Kaalep said a court case was not the authors’ preferred option, but the association could not rule it out if no agreement is reached and the draft remains stalled. It is now waiting for the ministry to invite the parties to talks. ERR was unable to obtain a response from the ministry.