The levy is not applied everywhere, but it is in Sweden. Copyswede, the Swedish organization that collects the blank media levy for distribution to content authors, announced on Wednesday that it is extending the scheme to include “computers with built-in memory, resolve internal hard drives, tablets and game consoles with built-in memory. Today we are focusing a claim to importers and retailers requesting accounting for resale from 1 September 2013.” (Google translation) This has legal backing since the Swedish implementation of the levy, called "privatkopieringsersättning" (literally, private copy retribution) was extended to include hard drives and USB sticks in September 2011.
“This means that the copyright industry in Sweden specifically gets to enact a tax on every tablet, every computer, and every games console sold, since they contain internal persistent memory which could – in theory – be used to store music, which is under the copyright monopoly,” warns Rick Falkvinge, the founder and first party leader of the Swedish Pirate Party. In effect, every digital device that is capable of storing data will, from September, cost more in Sweden whether it is used to store legal copyrighted content (purchased music or games), or no copyrighted material at all.
Copyswede announced that the levy will be 1 kr (approximately $0.15) per gigabyte of memory for devices containing between 2 and 80 gigabytes of memory; and 80 kr (approximately $12.36) for devices with more than 80 gigabytes.
IDG in Sweden reported that the news “hit like a bomb on Swedish consumer electronics market on Thursday.” It reports that when the levy was earlier extended to external hard drives, “sales of external hard drives in the official Swedish channel halved.” Total sales remained the same, implying that consumers switched to direct purchasing from abroad to avoid the levy. The electronics distribution industry is now concerned that similar will happen for sales of smartphones and tablets.
The Swedish Electronics industry issued a new statement Friday. “No one disputes the author's right to be paid for their work. But with yesterday's tapes tax penalty taxing new technology where the young generation is the largest consumer group, is absolutely the wrong way to go,” says Klas Elm CEO of Electronics Industry (Google translation). This is further clear proof, he adds, that the “cassettes tapes tax” is obsolete and should be abolished.