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Canada rejects 'iPod' tax for a second time |
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Written by Felix Da Silva (fdasilva@bitnip.com)
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Saturday, 12 January 2008 |
 The Federal Court of Appeal yesterday rejected a decision by Canada's Copyright
Board to collect fees from would-be MP3 player customers to compensate artists
for revenue lost to "private copying."
The proposed tax included a $5 (CAN) strike on digital audio players with less
than 1GB memory and $75 (CAN) for digital audio players with more than 30GBs
According to The Register, Canada's Copyright Act already has a levy on blank media
such as rewritable CDs and cassettes. However, attempts to extend the levy to
MP3 players and Flash cards were blocked in 2004.
Canada's Private Copyright Collective (CPCC) claimed MP3 players are audio recording media and should be added to the list of
taxable offenders. The Copyright Board accepted the petition and was ready to
impose the tax later this year.
As I have said before, allowing taxes on blank media and portable music devices is a bad idea. It makes people feel less guilty or that it makes it okay to infringe or pirate music as they believe they've 'paid' for it through the levy.
This will just perpetuate piracy instead of reducing or eliminating it. Education and enforcement is the only valid long terrm solution to eliminate piracy.
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