Apple Canada to reimburse iPod owners for digital music tax

The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) was finally forced to stop appealing in the case of taxing digital audio players in Canada because of alleged copyright infringement, and now Apple Canada is offering those who paid extra for their players a little lovin' in the form of a refund. The tax was in effect from December 2003 until the following December when the Federal Court overturned it, though the CPCC continued to appeal until the Supreme Court finally told them to cut it out already last month. It's a nice gesture on the part of Apple, sure, but some will remember it was the company's choice to pass the tax on to consumers in the first place.

[Via TUAW]

[SIKES @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

IPODS SUCK. I'd never buy one.
I'm glad everyone who buys one simply cause they WANNA BE COOL gets ripped off by the poor Chinese quality manufacturing and the slimy corporate scum who sell this $20 crap for upwards of $300.

[laughingboy @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

LOL.

Sweet, credible comments.

I'd like to poke at you with a sharp stick.

That makes about as much sense as your post.

[Deuz M.A. @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I hate it when people say things like #1. If it's cool, it's cool for a reason. Just because someone thinks an iPod is cool doesn't mean they're trying to fit in with anyone. Isn't it at all possible that someone might want an iPod because they, heaven forfend, like the fuckin' thing?

[Chris Kalan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Exactly. And if it was really cheap shit from some wonderful source that they can make iPods for so low, why isn't Apple pricing every iPod at $160? They would undercut everyone and make 800% profit, right?!

idiot...

[deuce @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Wasn't the pet rock cool?

I'm just saying there are fads and trends and the ipod has proved it's worth so far. People wouldn't pay that money if they didn't deem it valuable to them.

It's all about supply and demand. Apple is allowed to set it's price because consumers are willing to pay for it. Why do you think Creative is cheaper? More supply, less demand. Not because it's inferior.

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#3.

I actually hate the color white and the click-wheel gives me seizures. But I just want so very much to fit in! Which I accomplish by buying devices designed to cut me off from the world around me.

...

But on to the actual subject, I never quite got the point of this tax. I mean what, was the Canadian government supposed to sign the money over to the RIAA? Train a Mountie division that goes around looking for people using THE KAZAA and trampling them beneath their horses? What?

[Shane @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I think the comment about Apple passing the tax on is a bit idiotic. Of course they are going to pass the tax on. Why wouldn't they? That is how every business in the world operates.

[spike117 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Hah this is great. I sold my ipod over a year ago cause the battery went to shit, but I still have the reciept. Refund here I come!

The point of the tax was to allow for private copying of files. So if I wanted a copy of my friends cd, Id buy a blank cd which had the tax on it, so the industry still got some cash.

Now we are the same as the states, liable for copyright infringement even on the smallest scale.

[Orbberius @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Weird, because as I remember it, Apple actually did swallow the $25 tax themselves. I remember I bought my iPod soon after this tax went into effect, and the price remained the same, even including the new tax. So I don't see how Apple did anything to pass the tax on to consumers.

[quanta @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#9, that's not how I remembered it. At Future Shop, 40GB iPods went down in price by $50(!) when the tax was abolished.

#6, the "tax" (really a tithe to the CPCC, a RIAA-like entity which represents Canadian musicians) was a way to basically penalize everyone for potential piracy violations prepetrated by the iPod (and other music players).

Even today, Canadians are "taxed" for all CD-R purchases, whether we use them to rip a Celine Dion CD or backup our hard drive. One of the reasons why DVD-Rs are cheaper in Canada.

[marika @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Oh great now it makes me a pirate. They make me a pirate for buying CDs and copying them on my ipod. I am very angry at that, I bought CDs only to put them on my ipod because I thought I was being honest this way, so now I won't buy any more more CDs since it makes me a pirate. Their loss. You bet I will get my money back for the ipods I bought. At least when I was paying the stupid 25$ I could ripped my own purchased CDs.

[Orbberius @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

#10, I am remembering when the tax went into effect and you are remember when the tax was abolished. Though I don't doubt prices went down after the tax was abolished, prices staying the same in the short term seemed to indicate Apple was swallowing the tax.

[Dogbone @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Apple didn't swallow any tax and this tax or levy was brought on by the frickn RIAA who thought it would be a good idea to steal from every Canadian by imposing a levy on ALL recordable media. They even tried to impose it on Hard Drives, this levy would be at different amounts according to the size of the media, so lets say you buy 30 blank DVD's to back up your servers data at work, you would then be charged an extra say 25 cents a DVD because the RIAA says that you might put music on these DVD's, biggest scam going, pure THEFT by the RIAA. Now as far as Apple goes of course they passed this ridiculous levy on to the consumer but guess what so did EVERY other mp3 maker and I wonder if they are going to offer these same rebates?

[Dogbone @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I am sorry I have some mis information in my rant, DVD's are exempt(but I am sure you get the point)
some good info here
http://www.sycorp.com/levy/

[Dave @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

I quite clearly remember the prices going up when the levy came into effect. London Drugs and FutureShop had signs at the display counter explaining the sudden price bump.

[Jonathan @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

Now i'm just waiting for the US to start giving back to the iPod community. There has been a big hype and the hype stayed. I love my iPod, but I really hate paying for music =/ I know it's required that I do to enjoy it, but some more input from the community to the real world would be nice.

[Daryl Herbert @ Dec 19th 2005 1:24AM]

What sort of evil capitalist corporation passes costs on to consumers? Only Apple would be so eeeevil!

First, I don't see why any companies would have any responsibility whatsoever to eat this tax on behalf of their customers. Second, if they didn't pass the costs along, there would be two bad results:

a) they would make less money
b) consumers wouldn't care about the tax (which means it would never be repealed)