I've been running a business in CH for some years now but over New Year a letter arrived from an outfit called ProLitteris, which appears to be a central collection and distribution point that collects royalties from users for photocopying or scanning copyrights printed material (books, newspapers etc) for distribution to the copyright owners. Mostly on a flat rate.
Has anyone heard of this organisation? Or is it like the official-looking "directory" and "register" services that are nowt but private enterprises trying to extract money from you?
The letter includes a form that I'm supposed to complete and return by the end of next week so they can calculate our liability - the only way out of it appears to be if you have neither copying/scanning facilities nor an internal computer network. Although we have facilities for copying and scanning, we only ever copy our own documentation (e.g. bank statements) and the scanner is for the occasions where we need to send a signed certification in electronic form - again our own documentation. We never have any need to copy protected materials.
So is this genuine and am we going to be done for some sort of copyright fee or can I just ignore it?
Yes, I too checked the web site but I'm none the wiser. Anyone can set up an official-looking web site, after all... The fact I've never heard of them before now having been operating here for some years just sets the alarm bells ringing. As far as I can see, the charge is pro rata over a certain number of copies and flat rate below that - presumably even if it's 0. I was thinking of phoning them to try to find out more, but there's no point if they're not genuine
Also received the letter...was also quite skeptical...now I am just irritated. I am sure there will be more about this topic in the coming days/weeks in the papers or programs like Kassensturz . In the mean time, we did submit the paperwork and now we'll see... Glad I'm not a school...they are really getting whacked!
just to explain. I had my PhD thesis printed with a German publisher called "Shaker Verlag", and I understand they handled all issues on my behalf including registering copyright. For some reason that I never understood the book sold better than anticipated and hence I not only broke even but made a profit. I never dealt with ProLitteris directly so assume the publsiher handled this for me. I just got the royalties from them.
Yeah, got one as well. After a quick read I assessed it to be along the lines of the "official-looking directory and register services" scammers and filed it in the bin. I'll follow this thread with semi-interest.....
So it seems the organisation itself is pukka, but I still have alarm bells ringing about the letter I received. One big red flag is that the letter itself is a standard "Dear Sir/Madam" and is not addressed to the company itself - only the envelope was. I think the only way to find out is going to be to phone up, but the last thing I want is to be stung for retrospective fees
By the way ... looking at their crappy and cheesy Web site, I'd have doubts about them, too. Billag is definitely evil, but at least their Web site is usable.
I've run a business in Switzerland for 25 years. Some number of years back (10 or so?) I was contacted by ProLitteris. At the time we researched it fairly thoroughly and in my opinion it's legit. In any event, we've been dutifully paying their bills (which are based upon the number of employees you have).
To me, it makes little sense as we really don't copy copyrighted materials, but it's basically a "charge everyone because *everyone* is doing it" kind of approach.
It's not unlike paying for television because I have a device (but don't watch Swiss television).
I recycled the original (received november last year) on the grounds that it looked just like the usual junk mail. They REALLY need to change their approach. Even this "threatening" dunning letter looks flaky! Website has tarifs up to 2006... staggeringly poor. I don't have a problem with their service, but the scattergun approach is really crap. Apparently there's the same issue in the UK.
Now I'll try to decipher the German...
OK... There's a declaration you can make if you have no copying devices and no computer network. So I can ignore those as I'm using the computer and can see the scanner from here.
The form just requires nature of work, and number of workers. That's easy. One. Me.
And working in my cellar, all alone.
It'll be a little annoying if I get charged, considering that I've already paid for all the work related stuff I've got, and there's only me to copy them in any case!
I'll just have to put in a few more beers on expenses to offset it...
I too got a reminder today with all sorts of threats of extra fees if I don't return it by the end of Feb. I was actually even about to ring the police to report fraud/extortion until I did a bit more research which suggests they are legit. However it seems many many many SMEs have taken the same view as most people on this thread. I'm absolutely stunned by:
- the fact that the paperwork *still* looks even more dubious than the dubious directory services
- the web site still looks positively amateur...
- ... and still only quotes rates up to 2006 - 4 years out of date now
- they deem 2 monitors connected to one computer to be a "network" (they're taking the michael, right?)
- there is no indication whatsoever of what the range of fees might be
Indeed, after K-Tipp did an article on them a little while back, there were several comments from SMEs suggesting that the paperwork is *deliberately* designed to look dubious and be "filed" so that they can charge the extra penalties
I guess I'm going to have to fill in the form but it would be much more honest if they just called it a computer tax or a copyright tax on all companies.
We also got the reminder today and I am absolutely appalled by their business practice. I can't believe that they are allowed to go on with this crap without it being more noticed in the press. I have a suspicion that they on purpose aim for SMEs as larger corporations for sure would make a huge deal out of this.
And I truly cannot understand how the law they are basing their claim on could ever get passed. Fee for having a copy-machine - WTF!! You already pay for copy righted material when you buy it and now they want to charge you a blank fee again??
We'll do the paperwork and fill it out duly stating that we don't have neither copy machine nor computer network which is in fact true in our case. I do however doubt that they will be satisfied with that and suspect that they will continue harassing us.
I can only hope that enough companies send in this letter to Kassenstutz so that something gets done.