Canadian Courts Strike Down 'You Must Be A Criminal' iPod Tax Again

from the haven't-we-been-through-this-before? dept

Fri, Jan 11th 2008 3:08pm — Mike Masnick

A few years back, we noted that a Canadian court had ruled that the "private copying levy" (better known as "you must be a criminal tax") for blank media such as CDs and DVDs could not be extended to iPods. However, the Canadian Copyright Board seemed to think that such a decision didn't preclude it from going back and adding the levy to iPods at a later date -- and this year it tried to do so, sending the whole issue back to court again. Once again, the courts have said that the Copyright Board is wrong and it cannot put the levy on iPods. Apparently, it took all of about 24 hours to make this decision, pointing out that much of this stuff was covered in the earlier decision a few years back. It's worth noting, by the way, that the recording industry probably wasn't on the side you'd expect in this case. It was so afraid that a private copying levy would "legalize" file sharing, that it came out against the proposal as well. Now it can keep on suing people. Of course, it makes you wonder how it feels about the private copying levy that is still used on blank CDs and DVDs, which seem even less likely to be used for private copying purposes than an iPod.

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Filed Under: canada, copyright, ipods, levy

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jan 2008 @ 5:06pm

It strikes me that this would just cause more people to pirate music. I mean, if you're already paying for it, why pay for it again.
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EvilMessiah, 11 Jan 2008 @ 5:22pm

Well ... technically speaking ...
As Canadian laws read now, there's nothing in existing copyright law that explicitly prohibits file sharing and downloading in the first place, thus there's really nothing to legalize per se. That would also be one of the reasons why music biz lobby groups can't coerce Canadian ISPs into releasing customer information, and as such, nobody's been sued ... yet ...
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Anonymous Coward, 11 Jan 2008 @ 5:23pm

This is why Steven Page (Barenaked Ladies) and the CMCC (Canadian Music Creator's Coalition) keep making waves in parliament. The Recording Industry refuses to see the way the music industry is going, and with the huge numbers seen in Downloading (legal downloading) last year, it's getting harder to ignore such things here in Canada. Until the industry gets it through their heads, we'll have to rely on the CMCC to keep making noise.
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mike allen, 12 Jan 2008 @ 2:17am

tax mmmm
The thing here has already been muted by anonymos coward in post one it seems a good idea to pay a amount at purchase the NO MORE, perhaps other countries should do the same. the user then should be able to do what he/she want with the discs or machine and place on it whatever content they wish knowing that copyright has been paid. Of course the RIAA and others are against this because they can no longer charge the individual or sue their customers for download or copies.
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2008 @ 6:59am
  
  Re: tax mmmm
  As a creator of copyrighted content such as video games, I oppose this on the ground that this is especially UNFAIR arrangement for the public.
  
  The public shouldn't be force to pay for musics or for anything unless they want to.
  
  If the public wants to download over bittorrent and filesharing networks, damn the wishes of copyright holders.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2008 @ 7:00pm
    
    Re: Re: tax mmmm
    As a member of the public, I oppose this on the grounds that this is an especially UNFAIR arrangement for the public.
    
    The public shouldn't be forced to pay for music or for anything unless they want the item in question.
    
    If the public does not wish to purchase or consume the offal so many content creators produce they should not be forced to pay a tax to support those content creatros.
    
    Should content creators wish to continue being paid they should perhaps focus on producing quality content that members of the public would gladly purchase.
    
    However, should you be like most content creators, you can go on producing shit then suing those who actually generate you business because and ignore the fact that the vast majority of the public thinks your content is SHIT!
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    - Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2008 @ 9:00pm
      
      Re: Re: Re: tax mmmm
      Why would I sue my own consumers?
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      - Anonymous Coward, 12 Jan 2008 @ 9:01pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re: tax mmmm
        consumers -> customers
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Trevlac, 13 Jan 2008 @ 8:56am

Have you all ever noticed that Canada has fewer laws that the States? Yeah, and everything seems pretty peaceful up there...

Everytime a law is made, somehow or another, you lose a freedom. That is the nature of a law. Maybe we should take a leaf out of Canada's book and ease up a bit on them and see how natural human actions just kind of play out.
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Fat Jax, 13 Jan 2008 @ 9:52am

Fed Up.
why do we bother,I just had media player wipe out half my collection on hard drive, I bought my music when CDs first came out and now Im a thief cause they have no dig IDs on them
to he*l with these companies we are cattle to them.
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Fat Jax, 13 Jan 2008 @ 9:52am

Fed Up.
why do we bother,I just had media player wipe out half my collection on hard drive, I bought my music when CDs first came out and now Im a thief cause they have no dig IDs on them
to he*l with these companies we are cattle to them.
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Gyp Joe, 14 Jan 2008 @ 2:05pm

gosh, I'm sure glad I don't own an IPOD...

good thing MP3 players aren't even recognized...whew!
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name, 17 Jan 2008 @ 8:07am

comment
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name, 17 Jan 2008 @ 8:11am

comment
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