OSA (The Performing and Mechanical Rights Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) was successful again with their lobbying. The upgrade of Czech copyright law brings great news for them: While it’s now illegal to make any copies of a protected work (so you can’t make backup copies of your CDs anymore!), we not only still pay fees for each empty CD or DVD but the range of the taxed devices and media was extended. So the law either introduces pure taxes paid to an organization you have nothing to do with or it defines a priori compensation for criminal activities, paid by all the citizens. Both looks pretty absurd to me.
The problem is how to boycott this. Even if you ignore the bastards completely, i.e. don’t listen to their music, don’t watch their movies, etc., you still have to pay them in case you use photocopy services, buy DVD media, memory cards, music players, printers, recorders and other devices, regardless of the purpose you use them for (such as storing your own data or works).
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