The Globe featured an article over the weekend on the renewed emphasis on an iPod levy (ie. expansion of the private copying levy). While the article suggests that it is the music industry that is seeking the levy, it is more accurate to say that it is copyright collectives and some artists groups that are supportive of a levy expansion. CRIA argued against the applicability of the levy to iPods in 2007.
Globe on the Push for an iPod Levy
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Not surprised…
This should hardly be a surprise. After all, if they can’t get satisfaction through the Copyright Board, then go to their bosses.
As far as the CRIA arguing against it… First of all, according to the CPCC website, only Canadian artists and labels are eligible to receive money… And since the CRIA is basically composed of the Canadian branch offices of the US publishers, would most CRIA members see any cash? And since the courts decided that the levy means that the CRIA companies can no longer sue a Canadian for infringement, so long as the work is on a levied media, of course one would expect them not to advocate it; they found out the hard way that you can’t have your cake and eat it too.
The main problem with any sort of levy is that it means that you can pay multiple times for a legal download; I pay for a song, so the company gets a cut. I put it on a CD, so the company gets a cut. I download something from an independent artist who offers it for free and burn it to a CD. The artist gets nothing, the company gets free money. I download a Linux distibution or other open source software, the company gets a cut…
So avoid the levy, put your content on DVD’s like many are already doing. They’re useful for everything except music CD’s of course and hold a lot more data.
Sometimes using a CD is unavoidable for things like older servers with only cd-rom drives in them but thats where CD-RW disks can be very useful.
@Spike
agreed, however I think you missed my point. A blanket levy means that you pay the CPCC for ANY use of a levied media. Regardless of if the use was what the levy was put in place to cover or not. You also pay the levy to burn onto things that you pay the rights holder for already. While I agree that the levy CURRENTLY does not cover DVD media, this is a double edged sword. First of all, based on a legal opinion that was referenced by this blog before, this practice does not protect you from being sued in the case of an accusation. Secondly, how long will it be until the CPCC argues that DVDs, etc, should also be covered under the levy. This one they could likely win.