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Canada Quashes Copyright Tax on MP3 Players

Rippy the Gator writes "The Globe and Mail says that consumers may soon be paying less for MP3 players because the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that special copyright levies applied to digital music players are not legal. You might want to keep those receipts if you're giving them as a Christmas Gift."

3 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. The end of the canadian musid industry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Look...

    How will canadian artists and record companies stay in business if everybody is going to rip them off and the government isn't going to help them by encouraging consumers to pay taxes to help their brother canadians.

    You're all so selfish. I feel like moving south to the U.S.

  2. Re:Hooray! by tomstdenis · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can speak about the going ons inside the house [since I don't really care to watch] but from a "consumer" standpoint I saw visible protests by stores. It wasn't uncommon to see "you pay more because of canadian levies" in shops as huge as FutureShop [equiv to the american BestBuy].

    It was quite clear that the retail outlets weren't too happy about the levies. ... Neither are the citizens since well I use my recordable media for software backups not music.

    However, the canadian music industry feels they "deserve" more money. Instead of actually, oh I don't know, earning the fucking money they'd rather guilt trip the citizens and pressure the house to bend to their whims.

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  3. Re:Interesting by Egonis · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hmm, so if we Americans started charging, say, a burglary tax to everyone we could not ever have to worry about going to jail for burglary. That sounds great, plea bargains before the act is even committed!

    Nice comparison.... seriously! You do have a great point here....

    On one hand, yes.. copying music is breaking the law, but on the other hand... the levy tax pays the record industry as a whole for their "losses" -- so there is a half-right and half-wrong to the concept of levies.

    Ah, I love this Canadian mentally that has them believing that everyone here dies on the street because they are uninsured. Sorry, but it's a huge myth. Moreover, Canada caps its doctor's salaries so most of the really good doctors who specialize in the rare and complicated diseases that save people's lives come to the US because our schools are better and you actually get paid properly for your skills. I'm not going to open the socialism debate, but it certainly has its own set of flaws.

    The Canadian Mentality is a feeling that everyone 'deserves' to be given health care... no matter what their circumstance. I agree with this concept, obviously...

    What you see from Canadians regarding the thoughts of people dying in the streets in the US, is because of fear -- I admit that the thought of a capitalist approach to health care is frightening to me, and it paints a confusing picture to many of us, as we could not imagine getting a second mortgage for a heart bypass (provided that said person doesn't have coverage, etc, etc)

    Doctors in Canada do get severely capped, and mistreated, but that's not speaking for all of them. There are many fantastic surgeons, specialists, etc here who enjoy their work, get compensated well for it.. etc.

    You must consider the opposite though, the family of a friend of mine moved up here from Ohio over 30 years ago because the parents wanted to work within our health system, because they felt that American Medicare was too oppressive.

    So their are many opinions from different sides, I am not knocking the american system, but I personally do feel more comfortable and loyal to the ways of my own country.