On 19 September 2007 the Government of the Republic of Lithuania has adopted revised rules for the Copyright Levies in Lithuania (Resolution No. 997, amending 29 August 2003 Resolution No. 1106). Conceding to the arguments produced by the IT industry and knowledge economy groups, including the IRII, the Government has significantly lessened the burden of levies.

In particular, levies on hard disk drives and flash memory cards were abolished, while additional exceptions (possibilities to recover or set-off paid levies) were introduced for all blank media imported into Lithuania for the purposes of public administration, scientific research and public security. These amendments alone are likely to relieve Lithuanian IT industry and the general public in 1-2 mln. EUR of copyright levies. It is also worth noting that levies on Blue-Ray recordable media (but not HD-DVD media (!)), were specifically introduced.

The amendments came into power as of 30 September 2007. Copyright levies of 6% of wholesale price remain applicable on all imports of blank media and blank media manufactured in Lithuania. Blank media is now defined as any material object, whose ordinary purpose is reproducing the analogue or digital copy of the audio or video content by employing audio and video recording equipment.

IRII remains committed for even more extensive revision and phasing-out of copyright levies in Lithuania and the EU, based on their inefficiency and lack of transparency in distribution of proceeds.