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In 2021, the private copying levy did not experience the crisis. Copie France collected a sum roughly equal to that of 2020, well helped by the smartphone which is, by far, the medium that contributes the most.
The cultural industry was able to count on the private copying levy to collect more or less the same amount in 2021 as in 2020, despite the effect of the slowdown in the economy induced by the Covid-19 pandemic, i.e. approximately 295 million euros. If the sales of hard drives, touch pads, decoders and boxes or even memory cards have yielded less, other “media” have been able to compensate, such as USB keys but also – and above all – smartphones.
An increasing average storage capacity on smartphones
While their sales represented 67% of the invoicing of the Copie France organization in 2020, responsible for collecting the private copying levy, this share rose to 71% in 2021. Among the explanations is the average increase in the storage capacities of telephones, a technical component at the heart of the calculation of the amount of the fee. More than 8 out of 10 phones sold now have at least 64 GB of storage. In euros, smartphones are responsible for an increase of 4.2 million euros in the amount collected.
Nor should we forget that the law changed in 2021 to make refurbished smartphones subject to private copying, despite the standoff engaged by the major French refurbishers. Nonsense for many, especially from an ecological point of view. But the government ended up arbitrating these debates in favor of the rights holders of the cultural industry. However, according to Copie France, the levy on second-hand phones would only have accounted for 1% of revenue.
Timeshifting in the viewfinder
As our colleagues from Next Impact, who reviewed Copie France’s 2021 report, the organization’s next big battle will concern delayed recordings of TV boxes of the “timeshifting” type, a live control function that allows the box to record video content. on its storage medium. It should therefore, according to Copie France and the representatives of Culture, be subject to the fee, which the operators dispute. The first to be concerned is none other than Orange, already sued on this ground.