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Canadians Overpay Millions on Copyright Tax
An anonymous reader writes "Michael Geist has up a post on his site about the Copyright Board of Canada's decision last week on the controversial private copying levy, which functions like a tax on blank media. The good news? The Board reduced the levy on certain media such as CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio, and MiniDiscs. The bad news? The millions of dollars in overpayment from these media will go into the pockets of manufacturers, importers, and retailers, not back to the consumers who paid in the first place. 'In addition to the overpayment issue, the decision contains several interesting revelations ... the decision sheds some light on the CPCC's enforcement program. The collective has aggressively targeted those parties that do not pay the levy, with 21 claims over the past three years. In fact, the enforcement program has been so effective that the Board found that concerns about the emergence of a gray or black market for blank CDs has not materialized.'"
So I wonder if there's no tax on DVD-Rs. And if not, why not?
Last year I got 100 DVD-Rs for $25. At 25 for 4.7GB there's not much incentive to even buy CD-Rs if the tax alone is 21 for 700MB.
Free the Quark 3 from asymptotic confinement! Bring your charm! Don't get down! All colours and flavours welcome!
I can imagine it. How about this: since Canada has public health care, why don't they use the money to fund that? Then the people, who paid for the CDs, will get their money back!
Brilliant!
I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. - Douglas Adams
As I recall, when this levy on recordable media was put into effect, the purpose was to ensure that the artists would get the money to offset loss of revenue due to copying of recorded works. As such, I've never really had a problem with paying a few extra cents per blank disk providing the collected revenue went to the right place. (Of course it the system didn't address the difference between media purchased for burning data etc. but then, no system is perfect.) I find it interesting that nowhere is there any mention of giving the surplus cash to the people that deserve it.
Perhaps you mean a different thing than I do when you say "science."
Which copyright holders? Who gets to pick? Do we really want government (even the Canadian government) deciding who is rewarded for producing content?
How about a copyright moratorium for a month?
In order to compensate consumers for overpaying, we can download and copy anything we want royalty-free.
If it works out well, we can do it every year.
Don't forget: copyright isn't your enemy, RIAA/MPAA and organisations like them who abuse copyright, are.
As someone who produces something worthwhile myself, I don't want everything I did copied around for a month, thanks.
We pay that "copyright mafiaa tax" too, but that doesn't mean we actually may copy anything. We still are not allowed to remove or circumvent copying restrictions to actually execute our right to create a backup, we still have no right to actually burn copyrighted content on those media, so I wonder what this "tax" is based on.
In fact, we pay for nothing.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
How on Earth would this "return in the hands of the consumers" be organized.
By suspending the levy entirely until the overpayments have been made up for.
I'm Canadian, and the majority of Canadians I've spoken to don't have the (seemingly) common US mentality about health care being about the individual. (e.g. "Why should I have to pay money to treat someone who overdoses on heroin?") Here, health care is viewed collectively as being about the people, and yes, some people require much more of the health care dollars than others, but in the end, it brings us a better society as a whole, which benefits us all.