The Netherlands already has a levy on blank CDs and DVDs but the government says the artists' rights bodies were not distributing the cash efficiently and wanted the problems solved before new levies were created, the article adds. "You cannot give such a system the responsibility for a new levy if you know that it is not working properly," a justice ministry spokesman said.

Marnix Langeveld, legal affairs executive of the rights organization Norma, told Reuters that the ministry was basing its arguments on old numbers, saying Norma and other bodies had all but eliminated the backlogs. "Technology has advanced and people more and more use MP3 players and DVD recorders with a hard disk to copy instead of single CDs or DVDs," he added, arguing that artists are the victims of this development unless a levy is imposed on such gadgets.

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