“Do you have a smartphone? According to Tusk, you are a potential thief,” warns Patryk Jaki, Vice-President of Law and Justice, in a post on X. In just six months, prices of phones, tablets, and other devices that could be used for “potential theft” are set to rise. Theft of what?
On April 30, Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska signed an amendment to a regulation whose annex defines the catalogue of so-called blank media. This marks the first update in fifteen years. The reprographic fee, in its new form, will cover, among others, mobile phones, smartphones, tablets, as well as desktop computers and laptops.
The regulation will enter into force six months after its publication in the Journal of Laws.
The justification for the new law appears striking. As Jaki emphasizes, it concerns potential online piracy.
“Each of you will pay an additional 1 percent of the net price. It’s a fee for the mere possibility that we might illegally download music onto our phones, copy it, and sell it unlawfully. Even those who don’t do it will have to pay in advance,” he says in a recording.
He accuses the ruling camp of treating “every Pole as a potential thief.”