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Canadian Copyright Board Quadruples Levies on Blank Media

Posted by michael on from the taxation-without-representation dept.

agallagh42 writes: "Computer World Canada has a piece on increased levies for blank media. Basically, the levy was increased from 5.2 cents to 21 cents (canadian) on CD-R and CD-RW media. They seem to be using the "presumed guilty" idea, and punishing everyone who uses this technology for whatever purpose, legal or otherwise. Does this mean that, since I'm already paying the music industry for my potential pirating, that I can feel free to pirate all I want?"

5 of 33 comments (clear)

  1. You know.. by Stormie · · Score: 3

    ..if they jack up the levy just a little bit more, it'll be bigger than the amount of royalties an artist gets when they sell a legit copy (through a major label) !!

  2. Independent Musicians by Zeke42 · · Score: 3

    Not only does this help the large recording agencies by giving them money stolen from people using cdrs for innocent reasons, it also helps them maintain their power. Any independent musicians trying to promote themselves with self-produced recordings now has to basically pay the record companies for the privelege of trying to compete with them.

  3. Re:Canada is looking about as corrupt as the U.S. by litui · · Score: 3

    As someone once pointed out to me: FairTunes. Looks like a good plan.


    --
    I send you this message in order to have your advice.
  4. Canada is looking about as corrupt as the U.S. by RareHeintz · · Score: 4
    Seeing as a C$0.21 tax isn't going to keep anyone from pirating music, and since it applies even to legitimate usage of the media being taxed, this doesn't represent copyright or royalty protection at all: This is a simple transfer of wealth from the Canadian taxpayers to content-control corporations, facilitated by a pseudo-democratic government that has apparently sold itself out just as thoroughly as the one in the U.S.

    This brazen pickpocketing is nothing short of obscene, and it's part of a pattern of behavior I can't support anymore; until I'm given a way to pay the artists directly, all of my new music will be pirated. It may be illegal, but when the law is crafted by people who wish to steal from me, why would it make sense for me to follow it?

    OK,
    - B
    --

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    http://www.bradheintz.com/
    - updated
    1. Re:Canada is looking about as corrupt as the U.S. by MattGoyer · · Score: 5
      It's a bit strange that it crashed your browser. Email me with your browser specs and we'll look into it.

      I also ... didn't see any binding guarantee that they would actually send my money to the artists in question, or that they even knew where to send the check.

      While we can't offer a binding guarantee (no one can) we do try our hardest to get the money to the artist. Failing that we'll refund your money. So far we've processed 1000 contributions and only one band has rejected payment. Why trust us?

      1. We display all the transactions on our site so both fans and artists alike can check see if a transaction has been made. If the artist sees a transaction on the site but doesn't get a check then they'll know something is amiss.
      2. We've received a substanstial amount of press coverage and if it was known we were cheating artists it would ruin us pretty quickly.
      3. So far we've processed ~$6500. That is barely worth skipping the country with (seeing as our investment into the company has been greater than that).
      4. We display processed cheques on the site.

      In terms of the professionalism. No one is funding dot.coms. We're doing what we can with what we have.

      Matt. (founder of Fairtunes)