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Proposed 'iPod Tax' struck down again in Canada

While levies are imposed on certain items in Canada like blank CD media and cassette tapes, an ongoing effort to bring such taxes to MP3 playing hardware and flash memory cards has failed yet again in the country. Yesterday, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected a decision by Canada's Copyright Board to collect fees from the sales of MP3 players in order to compensate artists for lost revenue from private copying.

The proposed tax included CAD5 on digital audio players with 1GB storage or less and CD75 on digital audio players with upwards of 30GB storage space. Canada's Private Copyright Collective (CPCC) lobbied for the tax again in 2007, after the proposal saw generally no success since it was brought up in 2004. The Copyright Board agreed with the CPCC's claims and was set to impose the tax in 2008.



"The Copyright Board erred in law when it concluded that it has the legal authority to certify the tariff that CPCC has proposed for 2008 and 2009 on digital audio recorders," the Federal Court of Appeal said in its decision.

Source:
The Register

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Written by: James Delahunty @ 13 Jan 2008 20:13

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• 9 comments

• DXR88

  haha. way to go my Canadian Bacon brethren Show Steve Jobs that he may have to find a new job. haha

  13.1.2008 22:23 #1

• nobrainer

  Originally posted by DXR88: haha. way to go my Canadian Bacon brethren Show Steve Jobs that he may have to find a new job. hahaWhat are you on about, in Canada a tax is put on cd-r, dvd-r, ect to compensate artists for loss of revenue from copies that under Canada's law is legal for friends and family members of any cd, the lobby wanted to impose a tax on mp3 players but it was not accepted obviously because usually its your mps player and your media that you already own so its back to the media industry trying to make everyone in the world pay an individual licence for every piece of hardware then per user.
  
  Interestingly enough a few outspoken members of the industry did state that if the tax on mp3 players was passed it would signal that p2p piracy was acceptable as you cant tax ppl just for the hell of it now can you!
  
  
  Income Tax Illegal Fraud? How The Federal Reserve And Banks Orchestrate The Financial System - Video Clip.
  
  You are not allowed to let your friends listen to any music any more unless you collect royalties and send it on to soundexchange (RIAA)
  

  The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  
  The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  
  The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.

  14.1.2008 04:29 #2

• xempler

  I could be wrong but I think in Canada they're already taxing you 3.1 cents for every music track you download from iTunes. So now they want to tax you on the hardware too? I freaking love Canada, they're always finding creative ways to tax people here. Soon, you won't be able to take a crap without the government sending you a bill for it.

  14.1.2008 09:53 #3

• duckNrun

  Originally posted by xempler: I could be wrong but I think in Canada they're already taxing you 3.1 cents for every music track you download from iTunes. So now they want to tax you on the hardware too? I freaking love Canada, they're always finding creative ways to tax people here. Soon, you won't be able to take a crap without the government sending you a bill for it.Actually I think they already do tax that. Sales tax on food. Then money for water and sewage disposal from your home. Then more money (taxes) to process the waste at the sewer plant. And more money (taxes) to upgrade, repair and increase wages for the facility and workers.
  
  That old saying 'if I could sh!t money'.... Most goverments take that saying literally; at least in the sense that when you take a crap they make money. The sound of farts is like a cha-ching of a cash register to them LOL

  14.1.2008 10:01 #4

• banned2X

  Not a fan of meritless taxes

  14.1.2008 16:17 #5

• nobrainer

  Originally posted by banned2X: Not a fan of meritless taxesBut it enables Canadians to legally copy CD's for family and friends and the Artists not CRIA (Canadian RIAA) get a better benefit from the tax.
  
  Its a win, win situation IMO.
  

  The BPI Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  
  The RIAA Soundexchange Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, EMI.
  
  The MPAA Are: SONY, UNIVERSAL, WARNER GROUP, DISNEY, PARAMOUNT, FOX.

  14.1.2008 16:24 #6

• scorpNZ

  Originally posted by xempler: I could be wrong but I think in Canada they're already taxing you 3.1 cents for every music track you download from iTunes. So now they want to tax you on the hardware too? I freaking love Canada, they're always finding creative ways to tax people here. Soon, you won't be able to take a crap without the government sending you a bill for it.Pfft canada are ametuers for taxing,try here in NZ where the green party wanted to bring in a fart tax to the farmers & the cows they own,basicly cows emit green house gas when they fart..lol.. thankfully the tax was rejected only because of the public uproar tho you can imagine the other pathetic ways the government attempt to extort money from joe public,we have mmp instead of first past the post for our party voting i wish we could go back to fptp at least then the people we vote for get into parliament & not people we don't...end rant :p

  15.1.2008 00:25 #7

• xhardc0re

  u know whut? screw this tax. Until they back off their lawsuits, no revenue streams for them. NONE!

  24.1.2008 22:05 #8

• borhan9

  These guys make enough money to cover the compensation already and i do not think that this would be right because if u want to bring more taxes do so but then dont proscute the guilty when they get caught because the tax is basically saying that we are all guilty and we are paying for it soo hence no point of prosecution.

  27.1.2008 17:31 #9