Canada to Tax MP3 Players $21/GB of Storage

einer writes : "A brief article on some new legislation scheduled to take effect at the beginning of next year. This tax would raise the price of an archos jukebox from roughly $350.00 to $640.00 (American). "Comments and objections are due by May 8, 2002." Looks like I'm headed to pricegrabber." Update: 03/13 19:36 GMT by M : We did a big story on this a few days ago (although people keep submitting it).

Comments

This could backfire

[anthony_dipierro]

The only media taxed is media "that is intended for use primarily to record and play music". So if Apple wants to avoid the tax on the iPod, for instance, all they have to do is remove all the anti-circumvention software which disallows use of the iPod for non-music storage.

A shift to self-upgrading devices?

[Deagol]

Since the tax is on "non-removeable" storage, I see a shift in player construction. All devices will be sold (fairly cheaply) sans the storage. When you purchase the device, you can buy an optional card/stick/hd/whatever.

Of course, then all medial will get taxed, then all hell will break loose as the hard drive and memory makers challenege the law into oblivion.