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Apple to Refund iPod Levy for Canadian Customers
The Hobo writes "According to this CBC report, Apple Computer will be starting a refund program for those who purchased their iPod product during the year that a levy of $25 per iPod over 10 GB was collected. The levy was in effect from December 2003 until a year later, when a Federal Court overturned it. Previous CBC coverage here."
But shouldn't the Canadian Government be doing the refunding? They mandated it, they probably took the money from Apple as it was collected, seems like Apple gets screwed twice, along with Canadian citizens.
The government never collecting any funds - that was handled by the now-looking-for-something-else-to-do Canadian Private Copying Collective. Furthermore, the CPCC held all levy proceeds in trust and will be returning them to the manufacturers. Thus, Apple is merely returning money that was never theirs.
No word, however, on whether Apple return the iTunes Store fees for any Celine Dion tracks purchased in an alcohol-and-tranquilizer-induced fit of misguided patriotism.
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
Levy = Fee administered by a private organization
Tax = Fee administered by a government
There is another kind of evil which we must fear most, and that is the indifference of good men. -- Boondock Saints
Well, the CPCC isn't exactly lacking in things to do with this levy being overturned. The previously existing levies on all other recording media (CR-Rs, for example) still exists, so they will continue to collect that.
Actually, Apple will likely profit from this. They will get back the entire levy amount collected by CPCC, but there will likely be a few iPod owners who don't hear about the refund and won't collect.
A court didn't impose the tax. The Copyright Board, a non-judicial tribunal, imposed a levy (not a tax), with the authority granted to them to do so via Order-in-Council.
www.kitchengeek.com -- Nosh for
The Canadian Government, specifically the Copyright Board, authorized this levy (not tax) through ammendments to the Canadian Copyright Act.
The Canadian Private Copying Collective, a non-profit organization representing the music industry, collects the the levy from manufacturers (moderately important to note here is that it's not the government collecting it, nor is it actually being imposed on consumers; the recording industry collects it from manufacturers of recordable media).
Apple, not wanting to let the levy cut into their profits, pads the price of iPods in Canada to offset the levy paid to the CPCC.
The CPCC has been holding the money pending the final ruling from the courts on whether this levy should stand. Now that the court has ruled that it should not stand, they will be paying the money back to Apple.
Apple, in turn, refunds consumers as well (at least those who apply for the refund, which will likely not be everyone, so ultimately Apple can expect to make a small profit off of this, as will the recording industry, which collected interest off the money while holding it).
By the way, you have a similar levy in the United States as well, although it isn't quite as pervasive (ie. it doesn't apply to quite as many types of recordable media as it does in Canada). Many other countries have this levy, too.
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
I live in B.C. and got a 40GB iPod from Future Shop in December 2004. When I read about the levy being repealed (I think it was here on /.) I headed over to Future Shop with my reciept and got $25 charged back to my card with no hassle at all. I figured that the retailer would handle something like this (as they did in my case).
You should check out PresentMovie. It's a shareware application that lets you play Quicktime and mpeg files full screen. If you're using windows you can use Qucktime Alternative which also supports full screen playback. Wow, I didn't know slashdot put the URL in brackets for you after links, I always thought people were just being considerate. Sorry for being a n00b, this is my first post.
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