12-12-2003, 06:02 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Canadian Copyright Board Freezes Private Copying Levies for 2003 and 2004
Almost two years ago, I posted an impassionate plea to my fellow Canadians regarding a levy on recordable media. Well, it's finally come to pass, and like most things related to Canadian government, they half-listended to us.
Here's the good news: "Today's decision freezes all existing private copying levies at their current levels. As a result, the current levies of 29� on audio cassette tapes of 40 minutes or longer (no levy applies to tapes of shorter length), 21� on CD-Rs and CD-RWs and 77� on CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio and MiniDiscs will remain in effect until the end of 2004...The Board denied the Canadian Private Copying Collective's (CPCC) request to establish a levy on blank DVDs, removable memory cards and removable micro hard drives. It finds that the evidence available at this time does not clearly demonstrate that these recording media are ordinarily used by individuals for the purpose of copying music."
Here's the bad news: "The Board also sets for the first time a levy on non-removable memory permanently embedded in digital audio recorders (such as MP3 players) at $2 for each recorder with a memory capacity of up to 1 Gigabyte (Gb), $15 for each recorder with memory capacity of more than 1 Gb and up to 10 Gbs, and $25 for each recorder with memory capacity of more than 10 GBs."
All in all, I guess it could have been worse. The good news is that memory cards for your Pocket PCs will not be taxed as part of this decision.
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12-12-2003, 06:18 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 10,981
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Crap like this really pisses me off. Last I heard they have yet to pay anything to the artists, and I have yet to use a CDR to copy anything other than data files. Some of us use CDR's as a means of backing up important files, as well as transfering them to clients.
:twisted:
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"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein |
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12-12-2003, 06:19 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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good frikkin' grief. As if the conversion of US prices to Canadian dollars didn't hurt enough. As if the 7% GST on every damned thing but food wasn't a kick in the pants sufficient to abuse us at every turn. You know what this will promote most of all? Trips South. Just like First Nations tobacco, there'll be more and more recordable media on the black/grey market. I can see it now, some guy with a hockey bag strolls by the Starbucks every half hour... "hey, buddy, got some good bud here... or hey, want some discs? got 10's or 50's, all kinds, cheap!"
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Gerard Ivan Samija
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12-12-2003, 06:19 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by BlueRocket
Some of us use CDR's as a means of backing up important files, as well as transfering them to clients.
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Yeah, I know what you mean - 99% of my CD use goes towards making data CDs, burning photo CDs, or VCD/SVCD of events I've taken video footage of.
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12-12-2003, 07:13 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 64
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On the bright side, downloading music for free is still legal.
I read in some other forum that because it's a levy and not a tax customs can't charge you for it.
So if you order CD-R's online from the 'states, you'll pay GST, and perhaps some duty, but not the levy. Anyone know if that's accurate?
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12-12-2003, 07:32 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 10,981
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I read an article on CBC.ca last week that talked about implmenting a tax that the ISP would have to pay for every member they have, regardless if they download music or copywrited material using their connection.
Here's the link --> http://www.cbc.ca/news/viewpoint/you...t_royalty.html
If this happens, then we'll be paying 2 or 3 times for download a song. You would pay the surplus charge on blank media, your ISP would transfer that extra fee along to their customers, and you would pay a surcharge for the device you copy music onto.
This really sucks when you don't download copywrited material!!! :twisted:
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"I have no special talents, I am only passionately curious" - Albert Einstein |
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12-12-2003, 07:38 PM
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Theorist
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 276
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Quote:
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Here's the bad news: "The Board also sets for the first time a levy on non-removable memory permanently embedded in digital audio recorders (such as MP3 players) at $2 for each recorder with a memory capacity of up to 1 Gigabyte (Gb), $15 for each recorder with memory capacity of more than 1 Gb and up to 10 Gbs, and $25 for each recorder with memory capacity of more than 10 GBs."
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Ouch! That stinks! :evil: We haven't (yet, I'm afraid) gotten the 'taxing' to include MP3 storage.
Well, you (read: Canadians) are not alone... Finland's got pretty high prices. (BTW, we call it the "casette-tax"; levy just happens to be the Finnish word for "disc"  ops: )
FYI: All cents below are Euro cents, unless otherwise noted... - The casette-taxes for storage media bought in Finland are:
0,76 cents/minute for imagecasettes
0,50 cents/minute for audiocasettes
0,50 cents/minute for audio CD-R & RW
0,50 cents/minute for Minidiscs
0,25 cents/minute for computer CD-R & RW
Recordable video-DVD-discs (DVD-R/RW video, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW) 0,76 cents for every minutes average storage availability for video (or something).
Computer-DVD-discs (DVD-R/RW data, DVD-RAM, DVD+RW) the tax is divided in two parts: 0,13 cents for every minute of average audio storage AND 0,19 cents for every mintute that its possible to store images.
Add to the equation that one Euro is 1.61719 Canadian $, and we got more to pay! :cry:
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12-12-2003, 07:43 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 200
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by BlueRocket
Crap like this really pisses me off. Last I heard they have yet to pay anything to the artists, and I have yet to use a CDR to copy anything other than data files. Some of us use CDR's as a means of backing up important files, as well as transfering them to clients.
:twisted:
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Yep... that's the main reason CD-R/RW levies are considerably lower than cassette or CD-Audio levies.
All in all, the decision wasn't bad - the levies were frozen for the most part, and only non-removable memory in a music player is subject to a levy.
But, hey, if you want to get that iPod, now's the time to buy it before the levy comes into effect next year!
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12-12-2003, 08:00 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Jun 2002
Posts: 59
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..interesting. I buy cdr's for about 33cents each (at least that's how much it came to when i bought 100 about five months ago), so they really only cost 33-21 = 12 cents each eh?
But 33 cents is still good tho. I use cd/dvd rw media now... cdr media makes too much garbage once you're done with it, and if it was cheaper, it would make even more garbage.
anyway, i think that is pretty reasonable... except i think the $15 and $25 is a bit much for the 1+gb audio players.
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12-12-2003, 08:58 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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I wonder if people are going to start selling 9GB players instead of 10GB players...
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