Ecuador: Civil Society Takes On Private Copying Levy · Global Voices
Juan Arellano

In Ecuador, the debate continues over compensatory remuneration for private copying, also known as the private copying levy. The debate was sparked by regulations proposed by the Ecuadorian Institute of Intellectual Property (IEPI, according to its Spanish name) that would impose an additional tax of 4%-10% on the importation of all music and video devices, such as cellphones, personal computers, and tablets, as well as blank media (CDs, DVDs, etc).
Image from Facebook page of Ecuador no es copión [Ecuador is no pirate]. Used with permission.
The measure has not yet been implemented and, in the interim, various civil society organizations such as Usuarios Digitales [es] have launched a campaign against the private copying levy in Ecuador. Under the hashtag #EcuadorNoEsCopión, Twitter and Facebook users have joined together to spread the anti-levy message.
In March, a working group [es] consisting of representatives of the IEPI and civil society came together, at the latter's request, to address the “Act respecting intellectual property as it pertains to taxing equipment and blank media and how the proposed measure, from its application in other countries, would include things such as participation by ENRUCOPI [Ecuador's agency responsible for phonogram and ideogram private copying] and levies collected.” Some of the arguments and proposals put forward by members of civil society included:
To which the government agency responded:
Alfredo Velazco, of the civil society organization Usuarios Digitales, and one of the participants in the working group, gave his opinion to Global Voices regarding the results of the meeting:
Creo que el principal resultado es que, después de múltiples pedidos desde la sociedad civil, se haya invitado al diálogo para escuchar a quienes finalmente pagaremos el canon digital. Ahora lo importante es que las políticas públicas plasmen no sólo las opiniones de los beneficiarios, sino de todos los actores que son impactados.
I think the main results is that, after multiple requests by civil society, a dialogue has begun to give voice to those who in the end will be paying the levy. The important thing now is that public policy expresses not just the opinions of the beneficiaries, but of all the stakeholders who are affected.
Furthermore, members of #EcuadorNoEsCopión, inspired by the campaigns against private copying levies [es] in Spain, spoke to Enrique Dans, one of the prime movers in the struggle. Asked about what Spanish experiences in the fight against levies might be useful in Ecuador, Dans mentioned:
El canon logró cosas como, por ejemplo, hundir a toda la industria local de fabricación de CDs y DVDs, y hacer menos competitivas las compras de tecnología contribuyendo así al retraso tecnológico de nuestro país con relación a su entorno. Lo único que se puede aprender, aparte de fundamentos jurídicos que pueden llegar a ser muy útiles tras su necesaria transposición a la legislación local, es que el activismo es la única respuesta, y que este tiene que ser constante y persistente.
An example of the legacy of private copying levies is the destruction of local CD and DVD manufacturing, as well as making technology more expensive, thereby contributing to the technology gap between our country and its neighbours. The only thing that can be learned, apart from the legal basis that can be useful after necessarily being implemented at the local level, is that activism is the only answer—and that it has to be constant and lasting.
From Loja, Ecuador, on his blog bitácora de calú, Carlos Correa posts a part fictional, part true story [es] about the the refrigerators of Chimborazo to exemplify misunderstood protectionism and then goes on to answer some of the arguments commonly used to defend private copying levies:
1. “Don't complain; it's only pennies.” Here there are two fallacies: a) it is not the amount, it's the principle; imagine you go to a grocery store, the guard at the door puts his hand in your bag, he takes out a nickel and says to you, “I assume you are going to steal, so this nickel is compensation for a presumed crime, so now come in, go shopping (and don't steal too much), we're open-minded here.” I bet you aren't going to feel great about it; and b) if you add up all the levies collected in the course of a year from all the data recording devices that are imported or manufactured in Ecuador, it definitely doesn't add up to “pennies”.
As was indicated in the Ecuadorian media: Compensation is not popular on the Internet [es], but from there to securing a tangible result and convincing the Ecuadorian bureaucracy of the absurdity of some of the measures proposed is a long road—a road that will be strewn with initiatives like those mentioned above and others such as the one in this YouTube video by Activista Ecuatoriano: