Canada One Step Closer To Adding The 'You're A Criminal Tax' To iPods
from the automatically-guilty dept
Remember two years ago when Canada's Supreme Court said that iPods shouldn't be subject to the blank media levy that the entertainment industry had convinced Canada to put on blank media like recordable CDs? Well, apparently the Supreme Court isn't the last word on the matter. Earlier this year, we noted that the Canadian Private Copying Collective, the group that administers this "you must be a criminal" tax on media was pushing to get the levy included on iPods anyway. Now, the Copyright Board of Canada appears to be supporting that position, saying that it's clearly within the law to tax iPods and other such devices. As Michael Geist notes, the ruling could also apply to such things as personal computers as well, as the entertainment industry may now start to claim that it needs a tax on anything that can store recordable content, even as it continues to fight piracy in Canada. So, at what point do people realize that the entertainment industry is getting paid twice here? First when they get the "you must be a criminal" tax and then again when people buy legitimately purchased content.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.
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Levy-free south of the border
This state doesn't have a sales tax, the state we're in does. As a result
he will occasionally tell his parents to buy certain big-ticket items
before his trip home...
Don't most people in Canada live near the US border?
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Re: Levy-free south of the border
Strange that you brought that up. I was just thinking that most people in US live near the Mexican border.
/sarcasm
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Piracy
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Re: Levy-free south of the border
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Re:
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/entertainment/0101/cd.price/frameset.exclude.html
So where does the difference go when it's downloaded content? Sure you have bandwidth and storage fees, but those costs pale in comparison.
The industry (and now politicians) have found a way to convince consumers (legal-downloaders) to pay more for less. So when you look at the "Record Companies" in this aspect, "evil" might be a bit strong, but it's definitely unmoral!
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Re: the majority contain illegally obtained songs
Canadians, squash this movement before it's too late!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I don't agree with the levy but this whole 'taxing an illegal activity' rhetoric is absurd.
Private copying should remain legal (and expanded from audio recordings) and the levy -- welfare for the recording industry -- should be abolished.
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Re: Re: Levy-free south of the border
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Re: Re: the majority contain illegally obtained so
Loss Leader
Look it up. . . .
-M
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Also, a downloaded song isnt necessarly a lost profit. Many people download things which they would never pay money for. Who wants to pay $25 for a CD when you only like one song?
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Re:
Record companies aren't evil, you are for stealing music that people have put a lot of time and money into creating.
The problem is that the money from most music sales aren't going to the people that worked to create it. It's going to some old guy in a suit that doesn't do anywhere near as much work as the artist that created it.
This is just an attempt to keep their middleman role alive in a changing music distribution world.
And as for the "you probably are" card:
Most people in US prisons are young black males. Should we play the "you probably are" card here and just throw them all in jail before hand?
Most people that drive have broken the speed limit at some point. Should we play the "you probably are" card here and just start mailing speeding tickets out to drivers everywhere?
The most popular portable music player is the iPod. Should we play the "you probably are" card here and just take all other portable music players off the market?
And speaking of this levy/tax/what-the-frack-ever will only be placed on iPods?
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Re:
For every legal purchase, they're now getting paid twice.
Record companies aren't evil, you are for stealing music that people have put a lot of time and money into creating.
Fascinating. I've never once downloaded an unauthorized song, so why would you accuse me of infringement? I'm simply pointing out that it makes no sense for the gov't to prop up a broken business model. And, by the way, learn the difference between infringement and stealing.
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Learn
Technically, literally, fugitively, ethically, or morally?
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Re: Re: Re: Levy-free south of the border
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Re: Re: Re: the majority contain illegally obtaine
B*** S***
Look those up.
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Re: Learn
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Re:
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I would assume someone with a good knowledge of the law, certainly a better knowledge than myself, could run with this. I would also have thought any possibility of a judge agreeing with it would lead to a very fast out of court settlement, or a dropping of charges totally (probably with a gagging agreement maybe).
this could well be a two edged sword.
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Re:
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Re: dad's old tapes?
Now they still can't enforce so they just levy everybody to make up the difference.
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Re:
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you know what assuming does
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@post #2
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Re:
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Re: Re:
I hate people like you. Plenty of good trance, electronic, and ambient music is recorded these days. People like you don't try hard enough.
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Nobody to blame but...
In the meantime, all Canadians are invited to buy their iPods in the good ole' US of A.
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iPod music
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Re:
However, your incredibly self-righteous and arrogant assessment is false. The real solution is to find means to protect intellectual property without root-kitting the customer's PC or dragging people into court, claiming damages 10 or a 100 times the actual losses. I'm no fan of piracy, but the current behavior of the media industries is intolerable.
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Re:
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it is legal under the same law that allows our libraries to function
so dont pay for a cd download it.
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Re: Re: dad's old tapes?
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why are we assuming that everyone steals?
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Makes illegal content legal?
It's a levy on the content of your Ipod.
Therefore, any content on your Ipod has been "paid" for.
Therefore, so long as you only listen to downloaded content on the device - you are free to get the content anywhere you chose.
If there is a levy at point of purchase, proving you've paid for the device is proof you've paid for any content on it.
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Re: Re: Re: dad's old tapes?
The recording industry took a few notes last time around and went in head first into this round by sponsoring the DMCA. Before the DMCA it was gray area for all reverse engineering but commonly accepted as fair use. You can still reverse engineer physical objects as fair use but with the DMCA you can't do anything to break digital encryption (cough, DeCSS).
The DMCA also covered the butts of the satellite industries long enough for them to all but eliminate people using signals forced upon them. Once we get high quality fiber to the home as a commonplace thing, the phone companies will quickly beat out cable and satellite providers with On-Demand HD shows. And THAT is why there is a battle over net neutrality.
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Blank Media levy?
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Re:
You haven't been reading techdirt for very long have you?
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Ohh yeah, and all that money that is supposed to feed the "starving artists" instead goes to feed those "starving lawyers" who are paid round the clock to sue thousands of people for breaking unenforceable laws.
You can't fight the future, the music and movie industry must adapt or die, thats just natural selection. People want I pods, and they don't want to get waxed on the music they buy. The people will get what they want in the end.
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Re: Levy-free south of the border
Second, What this does is make pirating legal. When someone is arrested, and charged with "stealing", the simple defense is...no I paid...the levy on the media is payment to the artist (at least that is what they levy is SUPPOSED to be for) and thus constitutes payment for said merchandise, namely the music.
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How much money are we talking about?
A pack of 50 DVDs (including this media tax) costs maybe $25.00. I can copy and burn a million tunes with this much space - mighty lean pickins' for the artists!
Same thing with iTunes - it's a drop in the bucket. Anyone who thinks this miniscule amount of money makes an illegal act legal must be smokin something!
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Another iPod tax?
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Re:
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Re: Re: Levy-free south of the border
the Arctic circle. This is the cold end of the country...it's probably
warmer to the south.
This includes the thing called the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor,
which alone accounts for over 55% of the population.
It's quite sensiable really-- build your house in a place
where it's warm. I suspect that around there, igloos are built for fun...
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Re:
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Re: Re: Re:
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Re: Learn
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Re: Nobody to blame but...
people living in democracies don't have themselves to blame for voting for "those people"...big business gives contributions to every candidate and expects "payback" once elected, regardless of what party the candidate belongs to or what platform he runs on (yes, of course there are exceptions). But to big business, it doesn't matter whether it's a Bush or a Clinton in the White House, or whether there's a Republican or Democratic majority in the House or Senate, a sufficient amount of members have been bought, lock, stock & barrel, so it really doesn't matter who you vote for
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Re: Another iPod tax?
please tell me where I can buy a 80GB mp3 player for $175 or less...
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Are they not ENCOURAGING piracy now...
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