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Copyright Board Increases Private Copying Levy |
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Friday December 05, 2008
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The Copyright Board of Canada has released a decision on the private copying levy for 2008 and 2009. The Board increased the levy on each blank CD to 29 cents (it had been 21 cents). The Board argues that this will keep revenues constant at $30 million per year since blank CD sales are declining and there is no levy on digital audio players. It justified the increase by noting that compression technologies allow consumers to pack more songs onto a single CD. While several groups initially objected to the tariff, most dropped out of the process, leaving only the Retail Council of Canada, which did not present any evidence at the hearing into levy last spring. The future of the levy remains in doubt as the Conservatives have indicated their desire to cancel it and had committed to a public consultation on the issue this past fall (which did not happen due to the national election).
Comments (29)
Mathieu
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My god... "The Board argues that this will keep revenues constant at $30 million per year... " And why does it need to be that way again ? "It justified the increase by noting that compression technologies allow consumers to pack more songs onto a single CD." Music to be played in a CD player, which is the debate here, is put on a CD in terms of MINUTES, with a max of 74 or 80 minutes. People puting MP3s (where compression comes into play) on CDs are probably very rare and insignificant to this debate. Ergo, this decision is unjustified. |
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CDs holding MP3s - more common than you think Many new cars with in-dash CD players also play MP3 CDs. This is increasingly the 'bare minimum' - if you upgrade, you get auxiliary inputs or iPod connections. People with such vehicles would potentially be burning MP3 CDs to get a between one and two hundred tracks on their discs, drastically reducing the need to change discs regularly. That said - the logic of this decision is going to have a problem down the road. If CD-Rs fall out of favour, and their sales decline by 90%, does that mean the levy will then have to be $2.90 per disc? Although I generally like the idea of the levy, it starts to become a real problem when it becomes so large as to distort the market. I can easily (15 seconds!) find a 100 stack of CD-Rs for $54.99. Before, $21 of this was levy. Now, it will be something like $63 a stack, with $29 being levy. Nearly 50% of the price of the CD is going to copyright collectives - whether you put audio recordings on to them or not! (By comparison, I can easily find a 100 stack of CD-Rs in the U.S. for $19.99.) All this in mind, though - if the government is going to object to market distortions, then there are a few near-monopoly media and telecom companies out there that need to have their industry rules changed. |
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... any way the fact is they continue to decline and soon htey wont beable to justify that cost, as throttling that they pressured the ISPS for bmeans less need to burn , less need to buy cdrs. And why bother with a blank cdr go get a non levied hard drive and screw them greedy gouging bastards |
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... i gots idea lets make each cdr levy 25$ just like hte 2005 days then we greedy people can go live on our yachts |
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... wonder if cross border shopping now will being to become a factor in cdr sales as in OH 20$ for 100 CDRs versus 63 its as bad as a carton of smokes and guess what you gt form an indian for 10$, no taxes thats what |
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Hahahaha, Wal-Mart doesn't seem to charge it! 100 pack CDR's = $15.99 I buy everything else off Ebay. CPCC can bite me. |
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Uh-oh, better buy now folks! ...this will keep revenues constant at $30 million per year since blank CD sales are declining... So by extrapolation, in 5 years the last blanck CD ever sold in Canada will cost $30,000,000.15 Then what? --------------- catchpa = lakes Decrease I live in Ontario, you insensitve clods! :) |
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Old News There was a time when this levy could have worked. That time has passed. Today, the levy is irrelevant and the industry it funds is beyond saving. Those consumers still paying the levy have simply not explored their options. |
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... I don't see why I should pay this. I use CDs for storing research data and for distributing teaching materials. The music companies don't deserve a dime from me. |
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... yes they do they must extort every dime they can BUT remember folks without the levy YOU GET SUED so leave it there hrm new computer i got has a cdr writer do i use it when i have 1.5 TB HD space? haha |
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... buy in mass from the US. --- @thurm ometer my captcha word: alwai tyranny -how fitting. |
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... Basically, musicians are thieves. Through this levy they steal money from software developers, teachers, photographers. |
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... CDR sales are declining in part because of the levy. The current 21 cent levy represents about 2/3 of the retail price of a spindle of blank CD media. This set an artificial minimum price that CDR media simply cannot go below. Other competing media has already dropped below this price, so it's no wonder that people have switch over competing media. Increasing the levy will merely accelerate the changeover from CDR to DVD-R as the preferred data storage media. |
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What a cash grab the pirates that run these cel phone companies rip us off every month with system access fees. I can't even comprehend the money they rake in on these fees over and above the fees paid for monthly services. I want in on this class action. It is criminal the fees that are paid for an existing service. |
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freeBS Why $30 million? Why not $300000 billion? hahahaha chronoss > yes they do they must extort every dime they can BUT remember folks without the levy YOU GET SUED so leave it there This is funnier: You just don't get it. You understand nothing about the true nature of "YOU GET SUED." All you really care about, it seems, is how many ripped DVDs you can download for free onto your 1.5TB harddrive. The link below proves you can get sued, if you upload unsanctioned content on the internet regardless if there ever was a copy taxing levy or not. The Supreme Court of Canada only increased the burden of proof and responsibility on the entertainment cartels who want to sue unsanctioned uploaders, not preventing people from getting sued due to the copy taxing levy. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/resc/html_bkup/may302005.html Here, I'll make it easy for you, so you can return to filling up your 1.5TB drive with ripped DVDs: Michael Geist "The test requires a plaintiff such as CRIA to first demonstrate that it has a “bona fide” claim based on evidence that it has obtained (not merely that it intends to file a lawsuit) and that it has no other improper purposes for seeking the identity of the subscribers. CRIA must demonstrate that the information cannot be obtained from another source and tender evidence that is (i) admissible, (ii) timely, and (iii) links the Internet protocol addresses of the subscribers to the alleged infringement." You, chronoss, entitle your freespeech, or in your case freeBS! Anyway, musicians who are not on the cartel-approved list have their CD-R money stolen also, along with everyone else. It also shouldn't matter if CDRs are osbolete, lame taxing levy law is lame taxing levy law - one that will extend to other medium given time, namely the internet. Moreover, all who support the copy taxing levy should give me the money so I can fund my favourite artists, as we all know your favourite artists aren't worth a CDR. |
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Don't be fooled ... Politics and more politics. This is nothing but a trap for you and everyone to get stuck in. Government’s thinking is to give you something to play with while they rip off our money, property, happiness, blood, kids and anything they can get. They abuse, kill, jail, torture, mane, rape and anything else they can get away with. Worse than any Mafia on Earth. More eloquently explained by “stefbot” on youtube. It’s the stuff they don’t teach you about at school on purpose, and which you MUST know to be free as a Canadian. Till now, 14 episodes but worth every minute of it. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query="True+News"+stefbot&search_type=&aq=f Don’t be fooled, watch and learn how your government, any government, screws you and how to get out of it. Enjoy |
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Bosh I used to burn, I don't know, maybe 40 or so CDs each year. None of it music, it was all educational, presentation material, data to be shipped, etc. I'm glad all my work helped support Canadian musicians living off the fact of American musicians being pirated. But I don't think I've burnt more than a couple of CDs in the last year; USB sticks are wonderful things. (And me, I keep all my pirated music on my hard drive or cell phone; wanna tax those?) (Incidentally, how on earth does the cartel divvy up the booty? Is Neil Young Canadian enough to get some? Does he need it? If Brittany used enough Canadian backup singers, would she get some too? The whole thing is ridiculous, really.) Captcha: experience Steal. Is this thing content sensitive? |
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Lame The last time I've used a CD-R was to burn a Linux distro since a lot of the old servers we have at the datacenter don't have DVD-ROM drives. In other words, most of us get charged extra for crap we don't even use the CD-R disks for in the first place. |
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businesses should get rebates At the company I work for, we make a lot of data CDs to send to clients, subcontractors, etc. Companies should be able to apply for a tax rebate. |
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Re: businesses should get rebates... ... as if you don't enough breaks already I have a better idea: if your business can't survive with higher taxes as you should be paying then it's defunct |
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... Yeah, it can pay the taxes, that's not the point. Do you really think it's fair for a company making data CDs to send money to the music business? |
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Hmmm.... I'm a home recordist, and independent musician, I now have the pleasure of paying a tax to put my own copyrighted material to disc. Thanks. This is awesome. |
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... As a consumer, I actually don't have a serious problem with this levy... because at the very least I can claim that this levy legally entitles me to remove copy protection that may be on such works as long as any copies that I make are strictly for my own personal and private use. Of course, given that, it makes a lot of sense why the conservative government has indicated intent to cancel it. Be quite assured that this levy disappearing will mark the advent of the disappearing of any and all private copying privileges that we formerly enjoyed with regards to a vast majority of works that will be published henceforth. |
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