[Spliff]

http://www.minidisc-canada.com/levy.asp
http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnreta...02i5_audio.asp

All I can say is holy cr@p!

If this goes through in January 2003, it will effectively destroy the market for hard-drive based mp3 players in Canada

[Mac Zealot]

I will do whatever the $&*%@ I want with my "Digital Media" even if that means things the RIAA would look at in horror

[BatmanPPC]

Originally posted by Spliff:
http://www.minidisc-canada.com/levy.asp
http://www.retailcouncil.org/cdnreta...02i5_audio.asp

All I can say is holy cr@p!

If this goes through in January 2003, it will effectively destroy the market for hard-drive based mp3 players in Canada

But doesn't the iPod come with files on the drive? I forget. It's been a year since I got mine.

[Leia Shoots Like a Girl]

This was news about 6 months ago. They pass this law and people will just buy from the US.

[icruise]

This kind of thing really annoys me -- the recording industry obviously thinks a lot of its customers. They assume that everyone is going to use recordable media to pirate recordings, and you have to pay even if you are just recording your own voice.

But since I am forced to compensate the recording industry for piracy, I might as well pirate and get my money's worth.

[Usama's Carcase]

Doesn't Canada already have a surcharge on CD-R/recordable media? That is really something for Allah to curse. Since the US doesn't have laws like this (yet), I guess we can say that the Canadian government is currently more easily corrupted--the RIAA and lobbyists got to them pretty easy.

[Spliff]

Originally posted by Leia Shoots Like a Girl:
This was news about 6 months ago. They pass this law and people will just buy from the US.

Maybe, but will Apple Canada honor the warranties of iPods bought in the U.S.A.?

[icruise]

Apple's warranty should be valid worldwide. However, Apple doesn't like people to buy products from the US when there is a branch of Apple in the user's country (eg Apple Canada). So I don't think you could order from the online Apple store, and many authorized retailers won't ship out of the country too. It's sort of a gray area.

[thesearcher]

If people start getting them from the U.S., the feds might turn around and start charging the music tax before releasing them from customs.

[adamberti]

Well when I first read this post, I thought, wow I'd better straighten the facts out, the tax is just on optical media and tapes and stuff. Then I was blown away to find out they were going to tax HD based MP3 players! Ack! None of my friends knew about this. All we'd ever heard of was the CD's and tapes and stuff getting an incrased levy. I think they're trying to sneak this one around us!

It's just absurd, they might as well tax any HardDrive. My computer is hooked up to my stereo, I can play music on my stereo. Or why not tax photocopies, come-on, anyone photocopying is obviously stealing something of someone elses, they couldnt possibly be doing something productive or legal.

To make it worse, Artists havent recieved a penny. Yet again, the industry is 'stealing' money away from the artists, but claims that 'some' artists will recieve checks this year.

Enough ranting, is anyone aware if these prices are effecive Jan 1, 2003? So far all I can gather is that they're proposed, but not enacted yet.

-Adam

[ehunt]

Easy guys...all of this is just being debated by the Canadian government...yes there is a levy on recordable media(audiocassettes and CD-R's � As is the case in the U.S. , France and Germany) but the levy on hard drives etc... is simply being discussed as an option by rights holders under the current private copying regime.

Yes, the Canadian Private Copyright Collective (CPCC) is proposing these levies as an option; however, the technology sector groups are obviously opposing it. The argument being made that the zero-rating scheme should continue until the situation becomes more clear. A large part of the argument being the complexity of dispersing funds backs to creators and the fear that a massive grey or black market in recording media may emerge as a result.

The Departments of Canadian Heritage and Industry Canada are currently meeting with stakeholders and rights holders debating this very topic so you will not hear anything for many months.

The Canadian Government is in fact doing as much as it can to not stifle technological/artistic creativity (which a levy may do) as part of its Culture and Innovation agendas�quite unlike the American situation where we have the DMCA and the multitude of lawsuits by the RIAA/MPAA. So to say that, "I guess we can say that the Canadian government is currently more easily corrupted--the RIAA and lobbyists got to them pretty easy" is ridiculous without having any of the facts.

[FXWizard]

First off -- it's not a tax, it's a levy. Yes, quibbling over words is so much BS but the difference is that taxes are collected by the government and the levy is collected by a private group. It still sucks, though...

Second, there's a simple way for Apple, or any company that makes HD-based players, to circumvent the levy -- put a few songs on it before it ships since the levy only covers "blank" drives.

Here's additional information on the levy.

[ehunt]

Originally posted by FXWizard:
First off -- it's not a tax, it's a levy. Yes, quibbling over words is so much BS but the difference is that taxes are collected by the government and the levy is collected by a private group. It still sucks, though...

Second, there's a simple way for Apple, or any company that makes HD-based players, to circumvent the levy -- put a few songs on it before it ships since the levy only covers "blank" drives.

Here's additional information on the levy.

Okay, so I changed my email to say levy instead of tax which is in fact the correct term...message is still the same And yes, while the levy is collected by a private company the tariffs on blank audio recording media are still set by the Copyright Board of Canada which is part of the Government. Also in regards to blank media currently many people are using video cassettes to tape television programming and stakeholders have as a result suggested expanding the private copying regime to other works, including audiovisual works. So I doubt putting a few songs onto a hard drive would grant an expemption.