Yesterday was a great day for music consumers.
Marketnews: Happy Day for Portable Audio: No Levies!
I've had loud and angry opinions about copyright levies since the 1997 decision to charge a levy on all recordable media, CD-R, DVD-R, and old school formats like MD and *gasp* audio cassette.
Much like the despised blank media levies, charging a levy on a device that has the potential to store music is much like being given a speeding ticket before you even leave your driveway, because your car has the potential to break the law. In essence, paying the levy is doing the time, before you've done the crime.
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Marketnews: Happy Day for Portable Audio: No Levies!
A levy that the Copyright Board of Canada had attempted to impose on the sale of portable audio players has been squashed by the Federal Court of Appeal, marking a happy day in the Canadian consumer electronics industry for manufacturers, retailers, and consumers, alike.
In February 2007, the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) filed a proposal for 2008-09 that would see anywhere from $5 to as much as $75 being added to the price of a digital audio recorder, like the popular Apple iPod. (The current tariff at that time was set to expire on December 31, 2007). When the Copyright Board of Canada
attempted to enact a similar levy in 2003-04, the Federal Court of Appeal threw out the decision; and this time around, the situation was no different. The Court ruled that the Copyright Board has no legal authority to impose such a levy. What does this mean? Unless manufacturers or retailers decide otherwise (and for reasons other than copyright) you won’t be paying more to purchase a portable device that lets you record and play back music.
I've had loud and angry opinions about copyright levies since the 1997 decision to charge a levy on all recordable media, CD-R, DVD-R, and old school formats like MD and *gasp* audio cassette.
Much like the despised blank media levies, charging a levy on a device that has the potential to store music is much like being given a speeding ticket before you even leave your driveway, because your car has the potential to break the law. In essence, paying the levy is doing the time, before you've done the crime.
1 comment:
Splendidly evocative analogy. As I have paid the levy on media, I have wondered if there could not be a sort of "means test" as one buys such things. If one can prove one either does not know how to download music or does not enjoy the music which is available for download, one should be exempt. Better still, of course, is not to have such levies. For that matter, can it be proven definitively that all the money collected by such levies actually goes to creators, instead of being lost in administration costs?
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