14 DAY TRIAL // Sabam, a Belgian music rights group, decided to impose a fee that internet service providers would have to pay because their account holders download pirated content. Each ISP would have to pay 3.4% of their monthly incomes generated by subscriptions.
According to TorrentFreak, this wouldn't mean that piracy would become legal, instead it would make sure ISPs couldn't be held responsible in front of the law for the illegal acts committed by their customers.
Sabam demands the payment based on a part of the Copyright Act of 1994 that states authors must be paid each time one of their materials is publicly broadcast. The 3.4 percent was determined based on the fact that cable television pays the same percentage for copyright.
ISP representatives claim that the fee is unfair since only a small part of their account holders actually download bootlegged materials. Many believe that there are alternative ways to combat piracy than the ones suggested by the royalty collecting agency which is known for going to extremes.