When 70% Of The Cost Of Blank CDs Goes Straight To The Recording Industry
from the an-awful-lot dept
It's well known that Canada has a "private copying levy" on blank CDs. This tax was pushed by the entertainment industry as compensation for the fact that many people will use blank CDs to record music. It's somewhat up in the air whether or not this means that private copying is completely legal in Canada (the recording industry still insists no, many people insist yes). However, Michael Geist notes that the latest proposed tariff would keep the fee the same, despite the fact that the cost of blank CDs keeps dropping. This leads to a distorted market where more than half the cost of the blank CDs Canadians buy may go straight to the recording industry. Geist points to a deal for 200 blank CDs that costs $60 -- $42 of which goes to the recording industry. Prices in the US, where no such levy exists, obviously are much lower. Perhaps we should start swapping blank CDs for Canadian drugs.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
considering...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: considering...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: considering...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: considering...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: considering...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
greedy RIAA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: greedy RIAA
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: greedy RIAA
actually all mine are. the only time I use my cd burner is to back up software that i had to purchase for business reasons. The orginal goes in the office safe and the copy is what gets used for running the program. this kind of charge on a blank cd is ridiculous. I'm not saying i don't pirate software and music, they just leave on my server so i can continue to share them. just one more example on how screwewd up the recording industry is. I would love it for the whole damn thing to fold. that way the only musicians left would be ones that played for the joy of playing.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: developer and game industry cut
they get a cut from all the ads/spam sponsered on the torrent sites. :P
BTW - I must have at least $3000 worth of "archived" appz and games from over the last few years - and I only seem to get burned by my ISP for downloading copy-protected movies (CAMs or DVD-screeners that haven't been released yet.
Honestly - when was the LAST time any of us paid 20 bucks for a movie at a theater, or bought a CD??
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: developer and game industry cut
by winx on Monday February 27, @05:50
they get a cut from all the ads/spam sponsered on the torrent sites. :P
BTW - I must have at least $3000 worth of "archived" appz and games from over the last few years - and I only seem to get burned by my ISP for downloading copy-protected movies (CAMs or DVD-screeners that haven't been released yet.
Honestly - when was the LAST time any of us paid 20 bucks for a movie at a theater, or bought a CD??
Yesterday. And last Sunday, and Valentines day.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: developer and game industry cut
same thing with visual studio. i write ObjectArx apps (unfortunately im stuck using 2002... since in their infinite wisdom, autodesk decided to build a whole cad platform on it) for fun and to learn. how are we supposed to foster a society of intelligent people when the bar for entry is a measure of your pockets depth??????
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
This is bullhonkey
The music industry deserves to get ripped off after the countless boy bands and pop sluts they shoved down our throats.
Start a boycott by switching to DVD. (wish it were that simple)
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: This is bullhonkey
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Tax on MP3 players
I think that's a shame to take money from honest people to balance with pirates stealing music. How is it fair to pay for stealing when you don't steal, and when that doesn't entitle you to do it?
Why don't they add a tax on every suitcase sold, when you could use it to smuggle?
And when I look on students passing an exam, should I take away 10% of the marks because everyone can cheat at a time or another and not being caught ? I doubt anyone with some sense of justice would agree with that.
Can anyone give me a sensible justification for such a tax?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Tax on MP3 players
Well, it seems the tax won't be there in march and is postponed until a judgment to be pronounced.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
all the more reason why,
of course, that wont happen so we have to use the law to appeal to them.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: all the more reason why,
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Boo Hoo
Oh! how about they just charge extra for their crap and figure in the price of "pirating" (like the software companies do).
unless they already do...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
How about recording music I made myself?
If the surtax is to compensate the record industry for illegal recordings, then I should be able to record all the music I want onto that surtaxed CD--the industry has already been compensated for this very use.
The problem that I see is that if I decide to record my own music that I personally wrote, performed, and produced myself without the benefit of the record industry, why must I still be compensating the record industry who has no monetary interest in my music? Unfortunately, I cannot claim that I am now entitled to some of that surtax, since people (or even the recording industry!) might use blank media to pirate MY music!
I wish the Canadian government would give their citizens the ability to show cause: "Look, this CD has my own music on it. Can I please have a rebate on the tax that I paid to the record industry?"
Another interesting (but untested) idea is that as an American citizen, I am entitled to a refund of Provincial sales taxes on items purchased in Canada and brought back to the USA. I wonder if that refund also applies to the CD blank media tax (which, unfortunately is levied at the wholesale level, rather than as a point-of-purchase tax... makes it hard to get a receipt for the tax I paid).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How about recording music I made myself?
Same with dual drive VHS machines. Whenis the last time anyone heard a complaint there? Why is it that it is only now that things are more high-tech, and our American society has gone bonkers in the legal arena, with the RIAA suing dead people, etc., that this is such an issue?
Go back even further, and I remember making/trading/receiving copies of 8-Tracks and reel-to -reel tapes....
Something is wrong with the system today!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How about recording music I made myself?
been my arguement for years.
you know what, i am kind of happy these days when i wal through the mall, and look into the music store, and that sucker is EMPTY. when i was a 16 that was the place to be in the mall. you were really cool if you were caught purchasing some vintage stuff
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How about recording music I made myself?
Here Here... Let me know if you ever figure out what changed!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How about recording music I made myself?
Also, copying tapes and cassettes was often a lossy affair with every copy being a degraded form of the original. So you don't have an issue with someone making a copy for a friend who in turn makes a copy of the copy for another friend (because the quality of the "copy of the copy" is pretty bad). Not so with digital media where copy an MP3 as much as you want, it will still be the same MP3 (unless you do silly stuff like convert it to audio, then rip it back to an MP3).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How about recording music I made myself?
We did, sort of. Analog cassettes carry a blank media royalty as well, and the recording industry made a fair amount of noise about copyright violations, just not as much.
What changed between then and now is the technology. A cassette recorder is a "dumb" device - no intelligence or programmable circuitry to "tell" to prevent copyright infringement. But it's also analog, so any infringement that does happen is self-limiting (meaning a copy of a copy of a copy sounds like crap, so it'll only get redistributed so far).
Digital media (like CD's), though, doesn't degrade through the generations as readily, meaning your copy of a copy of a copy still sounds as good as the original source.
"My God!" says the recording industry. "What's to stop one NKOTB CD being copied to everybody in the world in all its undegraded digital goodness??!?"
"Practical limitations," was the response. "And taste."
Of course, that answer wasn't good enough, so enter the DAT tax, which has been expanded and re-expanded over the past decade and a half, and you end up here.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How about recording music I made myself?
Or your personal data (photos, recordings, documents, etc.)
I'd say the tariff itself equals absolute unlimited piracy rights. You've already compensated the "Recording Industry" by buying the blank media, right? Therefore, you ethically have free reign over any copyritten material you choose to place on the disk.
Of course, like you said, what if it's your own content? Now you are paying some corporation just so that you can make a copy of what you have already created.
This whole "Fair Use" idiocy in the US and everywhere else fro that matter is just a neverending battle of The People V. Corporate Interest.
One begins to wonder why we give a Schlitz at all...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How about recording music I made myself?
The bottom line is that the recording industry is an aging, geriatric dinosaur that, unable to be truly innovative anymore, seeks only to protect itself, however unreasonably. Thus, we pay for their adherence to archaic technology and lack of ability to remain relevant.
And why is it legal to buy a cd burner then? Why is it legal to buy blank cd's? Either it is legal (which it is), and the recording industry has no right to levy a tax, or it's not legal, in which casee the products shouldn't even be sold commercially.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: How about recording music I made myself?
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
You might also want to give this a look:
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Great!!
What do I have to do to get my share from the money colected on taxed cds??
What about the underpayed audio engineers? Do they get a tax deduction?
Isn't it all just another scheme so big co.s can suck more money???
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
DAT tax
Incorrect. The US has the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992, known also as the "DAT Tax". It in fact covers NOT just digital audio tape, but ALL digital recording devices (incl. CD & DVD recorders), and a fair number of analog devices (incl. audio cassette recorders & VHS machines).
While the royalty charged on recorders & media in the United States is not as high as the royalty charged in Canada (sect. 1004.a.1-3), it is still there, and for the same reasons, which raises the same issues (i.e., can you charge me a fee on the presumption that I'm going to do something, and then charge me with a crime if I do it?)
In fact, AHRA-92 specifically indemnifies against infringement claims when royalties are paid (sect. 1008). (That is, not in violation of sect. 1002-1003)
This is all exactly as lobbied for by the various media industries, who seem to have conveniently forgotten all of this.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: DAT tax
Actually, upon googling, I found this on crutchfield.com...
What is the difference between an Audio CD-R and a Data CD-R? Will both work in my car stereo?
Consumer Audio Recorders require Audio CD-R's, and will not record to Data CD-R's!
All CD-R's have some information pressed into them that can not be altered. One portion of this information is an Application Flag, which tells the recorder what kind of blank disk you are using. This Application Flag is the only physical difference between an Audio CD-R and a Data CD-R. The only other difference is price. The reason Audio Disks cost more is because a portion of the price goes to the music industry.
So uh... yeah, y'all are getting screwed up in Canada, they should only be taxing CD-R's marked as Audio!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: DAT tax
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I use it but it still seems pointless
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Doesn't seem legal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Change is GOOD
Sure, the switch from LP/Cass to CD media was simple... charge more, then conveniently "forget" to lower prices when reproduction costs level out over the long haul. Wow, what a windfall! BUT, when the marketplace changes on its own and leaves them in the dust, all they can do is piss and moan about it and try to FORCE people to continue to support their outdated business model.
I know that many people in the record industry have lost their jobs due to these changes, but many other jobs have been created by the shift. Change is good. It opens new markets and new potential, but it can't work when captains of industry cling to their antiquated notions of what their particular businesses are all about.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
COME ON NOW
[ link to this | view in chronology ]