MP3 player levy could be reinstated in Canada
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted February 12th 2007 8:02AM
posted February 12th 2007 8:02AM
Continuing to prove that music rights-holders just don't "get it" is the news that the Canadian Private Copying Collective is pursuing the reinstatement of levies on MP3 players in Canada. You may remember that the CPCC was the body that lobbied hard for the original enactment of a levy on MP3 players that was in effect from December 2003 until the following December: in the end the levy was overturned by Canadian courts, and various companies that passed on the tax to customers were forced to offer refunds. The reason for the overturning was the fact that the levy focused on hard drives, which, in the court's eyes, didn't fall into the category of "audio recording media." The CPCC is now calling for the Canadian Copyright Board to classify MP3 players as a whole under category of "audio recording media," as well as an increase in the levy range from CAD$5 to $75 depending on the capacity of the storage. Fortunately, several experts in the field of intellectual property have stated that it's unlikely the CPCC will get its way: David Fewer, a professor at the University of Ottawa, states that he thinks the CPCC is "really getting quite existential" regarding whether or not players like the iPod are "mediums" or "players." We love a debate on the existentialism of MP3 players as much as the next geek, and when the end result could be a tax that blames all consumers for a problem -- which is supposedly "contained" -- that could be addressed in oh-so-many other ways, you know which side we'd be on.
Uh-oh, the hard drive in my laptop is full of music. As is my iPod, phone and home server. That should probably be taxed. You should probably put a tax on every single computer, mobile phone, memory card, hard drive or piece of paper I could write 1s and 0s on then?
What is the difference between a recorder that plays and a player that records? The key factor is whether the device allows someone to make illegal copies of an artists work and walk away with it.
While there are no recorders that don't also play...there ARE players that do not record...we call them 'radios' and they allow people to freely listen to an almost endless playlist and there are so many stations to choose from that everybody gets to listen to what the want. No, you probably can't listen to the 'Dixie Sluts' on a whim but if you stay on the station long enough..you will hear them. :-(
"Dixie Sluts"?
Way to bring the level of discourse to a new high.
A levy is the wrong approach because it makes people feel even more entitled to pirate music: "I paid the music companies for the music when I bought the player".
Nah it's just a ploy by Apple Marketing to increase sales of the iPod in Canada.
When will people realize that the levy in Canada is a good thing? the reason it's OK for you to loan someone a CD, and for them to make a copy for themselves, is that there is the levy on blank CDs. yep - it's 100% legal to do this in Canada.
By bringing the levy to MP3 players, it would extend the same protections to MP3 players. Making sharing MP3's 100% legal in canada. Artists still get paid. It's not encouraging pirating, because someone gets paid. I'm all for a levy. The only caveat to the whole system is that the CPCC has veen very slow to actually dole out the cash the levy collects to artists. It should be streamlined so that the cash actually gets where it is supposed to go.
Cheers,
-ben
who cares. ill still be boot legging even if its illegal.
sharing is caring.
Dang!
To Ben,
You should do yout homework and see just how much of those levies actually made it to the people making the music. Disbursements from the CRIA levy fund were few and far between. While the process could change with this new levy collection, I think it naive to believe it won't encourage more piracy. Even as high as a $75 levy sounds, that's not a significant amount of money over a 5 - 10 year span of purchasing music. Artists will still get lower net proceeds, and more people will download music they feel entitled to, being that their wallets are now a fair bit lighter.
Levies are a way of ensuring the old model "works". If artists want their fair share, it's time to get on board with the new business model.
To Ben,
I'll tell you why this is a stupid idea and won't fly with the Canadian public.
No courts, no justices in their right mind should agree to grab extra fees from someone buying a media card for storing his personal photographs and then distribute part of what they paid to entertainment sluts like Paris Hilton.
Since media cards and iPods can be used to store just about anything in digital format, it's beyond my grasp how this scheme can be justified in matters of fairness--except of course to liberals, who believe in all kinds of government make-work welfare-projects.
Again, why should some pervert in Hollywood or rapper in the Bronx, profit, from me buying a storage medium for archiving family photos, recording wild birds or my bookkeeping records???
And since media cards/CD's etc. can't be manufactured to accept only certain digital files, it appears there is no point whatsoever to regulate the media in the first place.
Are people prepared to pay $75 on the new Blue-Ray/HD discs, especially when their price comes down to a few dollars in the near future.
The whole undertaking is a socialist redistribution scheme and should be scrapped as is.
"and various companies that passed on the tax to customers were forced to offer refunds"
What kind of crap is this? They saddle a merchant with the task of collecting this tax, which of course costs the merchant in order to properly track it. That expense either comes out of the merchant's dwindling profits. Or it has to be passed on to the customer, costing them even more.
Then the real criminal part it when the tax is declared illegal, they burden the merchants with the refunds. If the merchant already passed the taxes collected to the tax authorities, then where is this refund money supposed to come from?
That is totally BS. The CPCC or the federal tax authority should have been burdened with the refund job. Not the poor merchants who had no choice in the matter.
Great, like we aren't already paying too much for gadgets in Canada.
For those interested to voicing their opinion: http://cpcc.ca/english/contactUs.htm
CPCC welcomes questions and comments. Our office hours are 9:00 to 5:00 (EST) Monday through Friday.
150 Eglinton Avenue East
Suite 403
Toronto, Ontario M4P 1E8
416-486-6832 or 1-800-892-7235
416 486 3064(fax)
inquiries@cpcc.ca
The Ironies of Life.
It isn't illegal to download music
but associations and stuff tax the hell out of you in Canada in return
I've been building cheap 2 terrabyte sata arrays for video storage for our Avids. A levy like this adds $300+ to the price and these drives and they will NEVER see DL'd music. This is a horseshit money grab buy an industry that can't sell the garbage it's puting out. Fuck them, hard drives were and are used for a lot more than music. Get over youselves. Why the hell should I pay because The Barenaked Ladies suck?