Marta Cienkowska said the change would update a system that has existed in Polish law since 1994 but has failed to keep pace with digital technology.
The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage said Cienkowska signed the amended regulation on April 30. It will enter into force six months after publication in the journal of laws, although the ministry said on Tuesday that publication was still pending.
The levy, often described in Poland as a charge on blank media, compensates creators for the legal copying of their work for private use. It allows people to copy music, films or books at home without seeking separate permission from each author or rights holder.
"This is a mechanism that compensates creators for the possibility of legally copying their works for private use," Cienkowska said. "In return, creators receive a small, systemic remuneration."
The amended regulation will extend the levy to devices now commonly used to store or copy digital content, including smartphones, tablets with built-in memory of at least 32 gigabytes, desktop computers and laptops.
Mobile phones with built-in memory, televisions, decoders and digital audio or video players with memory or recording functions will also be covered.
For most of those devices, the levy will amount to 1 percent of the net sale price. A 2-percent levy will apply to CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, copiers, scanners and multifunction devices with copying or scanning functions.
Cienkowska said the charge applies formally to producers and importers, rather than directly to consumers. Critics argue that companies may pass the cost on to buyers.
The opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) has challenged the move. One of its lawmakers, Zbigniew Kuźmiuk, said on Monday that the party was considering asking the Commissioner for Human Rights to request a review by the Constitutional Tribunal.
Cienkowska rejected claims that the regulation was unconstitutional and said public debate around the issue had been marked by “a very large scale of disinformation.”
“If we use the work of creators, the system should ensure that they receive at least minimal remuneration,” she said. “Without that, we weaken the foundation on which the development of culture rests.”
The debate has run for years. A similar change was considered under the previous PiS government, when Piotr Gliński was culture minister, but was eventually dropped.
Organizations representing creators and rights holders welcomed the update. The Society of Authors ZAiKS said Poland’s system had become “obviously outdated” and no longer provided proper compensation in line with European law.
Anna Ceynowa, communications director at the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry (ZPAV), said the failure to update the rules had meant “hundreds of millions of złoty” in annual losses for creative communities.
Zbigniew Czerwiński, head of the Copyright Polska Association of Authors and Publishers, said the amended regulation would help create “a fairer order” in Poland’s publishing and cultural markets.
Funds from the levy will go to collective management organizations such as ZAiKS and ZPAV, which distribute royalties to eligible creators, performers, publishers and producers. They will not go to the state budget.
Similar systems operate in more than 20 European Union countries, where private copying levies have long covered modern electronic devices.
The culture ministry says Poland has lagged behind other EU members because its list of covered devices has not been updated to reflect how people now use digital content.
In 2024, private copying levies generated EUR 86 million in Spain, EUR 31 million in the Netherlands and EUR 19 million in Hungary, compared with PLN 35 million (EUR 8.25 million) in Poland.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP