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Domain: cb-cda.gc.ca
Stories and comments across the archive that link to cb-cda.gc.ca.
Stories · 9
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Canada May Tax Legal Music Downloads
FuriousBalancing writes "MacNN is reporting that Canadians may soon pay a small tax on every legal music store download. This fee is the work of a measure proposed by the Copyright Board of Canada. About two cents would be added to every song downloaded, with 1.5 cents being added to album downloads. Streaming services and subscriptions would also be taxed, to the tune of about 6% of the monthly fee. Most interesting - the tax would be retroactively applied to every transaction processed since 1996. 'The surcharge would help compensate artists for piracy, according to SOCAN's reasoning. The publishing group draws similarities between this and a 21-cent fee already applied to blank CDs in the country; the right to copy a song from an online store demands the same sort of levy applied to copying a retail CD, SOCAN argues. The tax may have a significant impact for online stores such as iTunes and Canada-based Puretracks, which will have to factor the amount both into future and past sales.' The full text of the measure is available in PDF format." -
Canadians Overpay Millions on Copyright Tax
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist has up a post on his site about the Copyright Board of Canada's decision last week on the controversial private copying levy, which functions like a tax on blank media. The good news? The Board reduced the levy on certain media such as CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio, and MiniDiscs. The bad news? The millions of dollars in overpayment from these media will go into the pockets of manufacturers, importers, and retailers, not back to the consumers who paid in the first place. 'In addition to the overpayment issue, the decision contains several interesting revelations ... the decision sheds some light on the CPCC's enforcement program. The collective has aggressively targeted those parties that do not pay the levy, with 21 claims over the past three years. In fact, the enforcement program has been so effective that the Board found that concerns about the emergence of a gray or black market for blank CDs has not materialized.'" -
Canadians [Will] Pay Levy on MP3 Players - Updated
Capt. Canuck writes "According to this Toronto Star story, the Canadian Copyright Board may approve a 20% levy on electronic media tomorrow, including MP3 players and hard drives. With the Canadian Dollar rising and this on the horizon, maybe now is the right time to get that iPod." Update: 12/12 16:33 GMT by M : rcpitt writes "The Canadian Copyright Board has (finally - a year late) issued its ruling on the latest round of blank media levy - the controversial (in the rest of the world as well as Canada) private "tax" on recordable media used to copy music which proceeds go to the music artists in Canada. The ruling by the board and a press release were posted to the Board's web site at 10AM Ottawa (CST) today. The ruling continues the levy amounts from the previous 2 year period (2001-2002) to the end of this period (2003-2004) at the same amounts as previously set but adds new levies on portable (MP3) digital audio recorders of from CDN$2/unit to CDN$25/unit depending on internal storage capacity." -
Canadians [Will] Pay Levy on MP3 Players - Updated
Capt. Canuck writes "According to this Toronto Star story, the Canadian Copyright Board may approve a 20% levy on electronic media tomorrow, including MP3 players and hard drives. With the Canadian Dollar rising and this on the horizon, maybe now is the right time to get that iPod." Update: 12/12 16:33 GMT by M : rcpitt writes "The Canadian Copyright Board has (finally - a year late) issued its ruling on the latest round of blank media levy - the controversial (in the rest of the world as well as Canada) private "tax" on recordable media used to copy music which proceeds go to the music artists in Canada. The ruling by the board and a press release were posted to the Board's web site at 10AM Ottawa (CST) today. The ruling continues the levy amounts from the previous 2 year period (2001-2002) to the end of this period (2003-2004) at the same amounts as previously set but adds new levies on portable (MP3) digital audio recorders of from CDN$2/unit to CDN$25/unit depending on internal storage capacity." -
Canadian CD-R Tariff Proposal Explained
Kushana writes: "In this story Slashdot reported on an application by the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC)to increase the tariffs on recordable media (including CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and cassette tapes) in Canada for 2003-2004. That announcement by the Copyright Board of Canada outlined the new tariffs but did not provide any justification. The Copyright Board has now published a CPCC document (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) that outlines the CPCC's rationale for their proposed increases and new media to be covered." Read below for more details."The actual basis of these tariffs is a complex formula that involves (among other things) the percentage of the media sold to consumers, the fee payable to the copyright holders from an average pressed music CD, and the percentage of CD-Rs that end up as coasters. The formula can be found in the document that describes the tariffs for Private Copying 2001-2002 (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).
In the case of CD-Rs, the proposed increase from $0.21/CD-R to $0.59/CD-R is due to an increase in the percentage of CD-Rs bought by consumers (45% to 70% since late 2000), an increase in the percentage of CD-Rs used to copy music (56% to 62% in the same time period), and the advent of 80min CD-Rs that can hold more music. However, there is one more factor.
There is currently a "secondary value" discount on the levy to reflect the fact that copies are worth less than the originals. In the 2001-2002 decision the Board applied a 37.5% discount to that effect. The CPCC now claims that because so few copies are of the whole album (10% by their numbers) the discount should only apply to those."
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Canadian CD-R Tariff Proposal Explained
Kushana writes: "In this story Slashdot reported on an application by the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC)to increase the tariffs on recordable media (including CD-Rs, DVD-Rs, and cassette tapes) in Canada for 2003-2004. That announcement by the Copyright Board of Canada outlined the new tariffs but did not provide any justification. The Copyright Board has now published a CPCC document (Adobe Acrobat Reader required) that outlines the CPCC's rationale for their proposed increases and new media to be covered." Read below for more details."The actual basis of these tariffs is a complex formula that involves (among other things) the percentage of the media sold to consumers, the fee payable to the copyright holders from an average pressed music CD, and the percentage of CD-Rs that end up as coasters. The formula can be found in the document that describes the tariffs for Private Copying 2001-2002 (Adobe Acrobat Reader required).
In the case of CD-Rs, the proposed increase from $0.21/CD-R to $0.59/CD-R is due to an increase in the percentage of CD-Rs bought by consumers (45% to 70% since late 2000), an increase in the percentage of CD-Rs used to copy music (56% to 62% in the same time period), and the advent of 80min CD-Rs that can hold more music. However, there is one more factor.
There is currently a "secondary value" discount on the levy to reflect the fact that copies are worth less than the originals. In the 2001-2002 decision the Board applied a 37.5% discount to that effect. The CPCC now claims that because so few copies are of the whole album (10% by their numbers) the discount should only apply to those."
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Canada to Raise Tariffs on Recordable Media
Joel Ironstone writes: "A new Canadian levy will be introduced in 2003 on all recordable media (pdf). The magnitude of these tariffs is staggering: $1.23 for all CD-RW's, $2.27 on all DVD-R's, and get this: $21 for each gigabyte of storage on portable MP3 players. That's an extra 160 dollars for a Nomad." Like in the U.S., this tax is collected and given directly to the record industry, a governmental subsidy for no apparent societal benefit. -
New Tax in Canada on Blank Recordable Media
Adrift writes ""Following the recently concluded public review of the current private copying levies, the Copyright Board announced today that it is setting new levies on blank audio recording media. Effective January 1, 2001, private copying levies will increase to 29 on audio cassette tapes of 40 minutes or longer (remaining zero for tapes of shorter length), 21 on CD-Rs and CD-RWs and 77 on CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio and MiniDiscs. Manufacturers and importers of blank audio recording media are required to pay these levies to the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) when these media are sold in Canada." The Copyright Board's announcement is here." -
Canadian CD Levy Announced
diathesis writes "The Candian Copyright Board has finally implemented the long-feared recordable media levy. Fortunately, the tariff is 5.2 cents per disc for CD-R and CD-RW media, which is far less than had been reported as likely. " A serious question: they distinguish between "Audio CDs" and "CDs". Is a blank CD somehow different? Because it's 60 cents for Audio CDs. Update: 12/17 02:08 by H :If you want to speak-out against this, check out this petition.