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.

Comments

Re:Another case of Too Much Government

[DarkZero]

It appears that Microsoft is simply too big and that that is why people don't like them. However, the case against Microsoft really isn't about whether or not they're too big or whether or not they have a monopoly. The crux of it is things like the fact that they TRIED to have a monopoly by telling PC makers that they either had to sign a deal with Microsoft that they would never use any other OS in ANYTHING THEY MADE or not use any Microsoft products at all. That's a monopolist practice that falls under anti-trust law and Microsoft has also done several other things that fall under those laws.

Unfortunately, most people think that the case is simply about Microsoft being too big because the media, even the technologically inclined side of the media, is grossly irrepresenting this story.

Re:Public's fault

[tomstdenis]

Anything that pisses off smokers in my books is a good idea.

My main beef is the 2nd hand smoke. I don't care if you kill yourself, but why should you force others to be victims.

Technically had 2nd hand smoke been declared an asault I could go about kick the crap out of all the shithead smokers in front of my school.

You want a dirty habit try drinking coke/pepsi/cola instead. That shit is nasty enough.

BTW if you have kids and smoke you are a dirty whore and deserve to die. Kids subjected to that shit are normally more apt to get bronchitis as well as pneumonia [I got it 4 years in a row when I was a kid].

Tom