So-called iPod tax overturned by Canadian court
By Darren Murph 
posted January 14th 2008 8:41AM
posted January 14th 2008 8:41AM
Splendid news on the Canadian front -- it seems as if that proposed tax on digital recorders and storage devices (you know, like Apple's iPod for instance) will actually not come to pass. According to Judge Karen Sharlow, the board "had no legal authority to certify a tariff on digital audio recorders or on the memory permanently embedded in digital audio recorders." The ruling enables all music lovin' Canucks to breath a sigh of relief, as it makes tacking on fees ranging from C$5 ($4.95) to C$75 ($74) in order to "compensate the recording industry for music that was copied" illegal . From here, a decision still needs to be made to clarify the legality (or illegality) of copying music from discs to DAPs, but at least we're seeing a touch of levelheadedness in the music biz, regardless.[Via ArsTechnica]
ahhh !!! WTF ? ipod tax ?
there shoud be. those things are FUCKING UGLY
i personally like my ipod touch .. and thats as far as it goes !
I think the government should pay us NOT to steal music so then I wouldn't need to steal it and the music artists will get their cash. everyones happy. :)
The government can go *uck itself.
LOL what were they thinking when they tried to pass that? Make everyone pay for 'the loss of the music industry' ? lol how about no..
I know, it sounds rediculous. Too bad it happens already. For every Zune MS sells, a little bit of that money goes to the RIAA. Oh, and everytime you buy CD-Rs, a little cash goes to the RIAA too!
It's funny, here at work we buy hundreds of spindles of CD-Rs a year to burn data for distribution. Not a single one is ever used for burning music, and yet we're lining the pockets of the RIAA.
Will this open up canadians to the types of aggressive law suits that americans have been subject to for so long?
I did not know that..I also buy tons of CDs and not many are used for music, mostly data..that's just stupid. Stupid RIAA sueing grandmas and lil kids..that's all they think of..pathetic.
@shanoboy
I've never heard of that, and I'm not saying that you're not right. But even if that's true, at least it isn't in the form of a government tax.
Here's some sources to back up my claims guys:
The Zune fee story was featured here on Engadget:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/09/universal-music-get-fee-for-every-zune-sold/
And the CD-R tax was mentioned on the boycott-RIAA blog. I know it's biased but some deeper research will show that it is in fact true:
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/facts/truth
See, the thing is that those are companies selling a product and giving some of the proceeds to the RIAA. It's a business deal, and with the example of the Zune, it was because Microsoft needed to be on the good side of the RIAA and labels because it relies on them for its music store.
The tax discussed here however would have been the Canadian GOVERNMENT forcing consumers to pay more for products for the direct profit of another industry, taking freedom not only away from the consumer but from the producer as well.
Nono, compensate the recording industry for music that was copied LEGALLY. Making a copy of music for private personal use in Canada is perfectly legal, under the copyright act of 1997, part VIII: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/C-42
CRIA does it's best to try to confuse this issue, but the law is very plain on the matter.
Problem is however, everyone that downloads the music illegally and burns it on CDs and loads them up on their iPods. Its desperation on their part as they can't go after the illegal downloads, so they try to tax the mediums that utilize them.
You've got your money wrong, The Canadian dollar is worth MORE than the American, not the other way around.
Not today... http://www.xe.com/ucc/
Currently:
$1.0000USD = $1.0198CAD
So you've got _your_ money wrong.
You really need to check that sort of thing before saying it... the canadian dollar was ahead from about mid-September to December, then again from about mid-December until January. The greenback's still slightly up.
We have the same system in Sweden ("kassett bands avgiften") and it’s been in action since, as the name suggests the cassette tapes started to be used. So far it’s only been used for storage Medias, but who knows....
What this means is that many people feel they have already paid for the music and films by buying the CDs and DVDs, and thereby feels it’s ok to download.
In other words the music and film industry is once again biting its own ass.
Another thing that’s happening in Sweden is that we have a politic party called “Pirat partiet” (the pirate party) that is working to allow downloading of music and movies. Now the big parties are starting to pick up the same lines, one of the big reasons for this is the fact that approximately 1.4 million Swedes download (out of 9 million). And that’s one heluva lot of votes ;)
I say if you pay the tax, you should have free legal access to (normally illegal) music on the device you paid the tax on, because they seem to assume you'll do it anyway.
That's probably why it didn't go through. Forcing the tax would be the same as granting permission. If you've paid to be able to use copied music then you should be able to copy music... That's a Pandora's box no judge wants to open.
No, can't possible reimburse a business for theft, but we certainly can charge strip club patrons an extra gratuity for the suffering of sexually abused women.
The irony is that every independent artist I know here in Canada (I assume it's similar everywhere) has thrived in the world of mp3s. The day of record label giant may be numbered, but if you like music with a little more depth and thought put into it than is typically reflected in the top 40, then the mp3 age your prayers (and the prayers of indie artists everywhere).