During the Zapatero government, the digital canon came into force, a tax that was applied to any device that was capable of storing content, whether it was downloaded illegally or were own content produced by users or companies.
After many comings and goings, the canon that was annulled in 2011 and that in January of last year was declared illegal returns to operation on August 1 and its operation is very similar to the previous one, but this time material intended for professional use will not be affected by this canon.
When the canon was annulled, the compensation received by content creators went to the general state budget, so that all ordinary Spaniards, whether or not they made use of digital storage media, had to pay it. As of August 1, the new digital canon will discriminate between the use of devices or products to store content if it is for private or commercial use, one of the reasons that produced its banning.
Who pays and who does not pay the fee
All those people or entities that are dedicated to a professional sector and that accredit it, will be exempt from paying this fee, while ordinary users will have no choice but to go through the hoop and pay the fee established in the deviceI know that I show you in the next section.
Natural persons who demonstrate that the material they produce will be reproduced only abroad also pThey may request the exemption or refund of the amount paid previously at the time of purchase.
Companies that use storage media to create backup copies, they will have to go through the box, something that they do not even have heads considering that the stored content is their own and that it will not be shared at any time.
What devices does the new digital canon affect?
At the top of the ranking of the highest amount to pay for the digital canon, external hard drives 6,45 euros, internal hard drives 5,45 euros, printers with integrated scanner 5,25 euros, followed by printers 4,50, tablets 3,15 euros, DVD recorders 1,86 euros and smartphones 1,10. Music or video streaming services have not been affected by the canon at the moment, but everything will work.
Obviously USB skewers, CDs and DVDs, whether rewritable or not will also be affected although to a lesser extent, between 8 and 28 cents respectively per unit. So far, cloud storage services have not been affected, but the government has the option to add more devices, products or services to the list, something that should not surprise us.