Hewlett-Packard Hits Legal Snag Over Its

CD Burners in Germany

Compact Disk burners have been a controversial product for the last several years because of there ability for making “pirating” of computer software and music CD’s a very easy operation. The Hewlett-Packard Corporation has become the first major company to be attacked by the German Law which requires firms to pay fee’s for making CD burners which in turn can be used for pirating music CD’s from music illegally downloaded from the internet.

The music Industry estimated that approximately five billion dollars in sales revenue was lost last year due to the pirating of music CD’s. Many other European countries have laws similar to Germany’s that are meant to protect the authors and musicians legal ownership of their work by punishing the people who create the equipment used to carry out pirating activities. Although a problem is that these laws were created quite sometime ago and were aimed at such things as tape recorders and video players.

Germany’s lawsuit against HP is the first time we have seen these older laws being put against modern day technology. What needs to be examined in this case is the distinct difference that this new pirating has. Unlike the past the majority of the pirated CD’s are created for personal use and not sold on the black market. People are downloading music from such programs as the infamous Napster and creating their own CD’s, which results in a zero profit for the music industry.

HP was ordered by the German government to pay a fee of 30 marks or $12.86 for each CD burner sold. HP resisted the order and the legal battle began. The battle continued until last Thursday when HP agreed to pay 3.6 marks for each burner sold during the lawsuit hearings, and will now pay 12 marks per unit in the future. Other companies selling CD burners in Germany will also be subject to these fees.

Bibliography

(Summary of WallStreet Journal Article Nov 27, 2001 page B11)

Word Count: 327