Content area
Full Text
TELECOMWORLDWIRE-29 June 2001-HP ordered to pay royalties on CD writers sold in Germany (C)1994-2001 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD http:// www.m2.com Hewlett-Packard Co (HP) has been ordered by a German court to pay royalties on every CD writer it sells in Germany. The Stuttgart district court also ruled that all the CD writers sold by HP in the past three years should be included in the royalty payments. The court based its decision on the fact that HP's technology can be used to take free music from the Internet in breach of artists' copyright, and should therefore incur a royalty fee. The size of the fee has yet to be decided. The judgement will also apply to other firms selling CD writers in Germany. HP has pledged to appeal the court's decision, according to the BBC. ((Comments on this story may be sent to [email protected]))