it's perfectly legal for Canadians to purchase their CDs from the US and avoid the extra costs associated with the levy.
Wouldn't they end up paying just the same extra cost (and perhaps extra GST/PST) while importing these items?
Yeah, I was going to mention that in my post but decided not to since we're just talking about the levy here. Tax doesn't really count as you'd be paying that in Canada anyway. Regarding duty/importing fees, it all depends on the situation. If I bought a small pack of CDs that didn't cost much I wouldn't have to pay any duty. Or the company I buy my packaging supplies from also sells CDs, and they pay all fees related to importing. But if I declared $200 worth of CDs when driving across the border, yes, I'm sure I'd definitely have to pay duty on that.
As I purchase large quantities of CD-Rs for use at my workplace, I've done some research into this.
From the seller's point of view, it's not so much that they have to charge the levy to customers, but that they themselves have to pay the levy to the CPCC for any CDs they sell (the exception being sales to customers that have a levy exemption such as my workplace). Of course, that expense is passed on to the customers in the form of higher prices. In the interest of full disclosure, I've seen some places with signs out by the CDs/DVDs outlining how much of the price goes to the levy.
In this case with the seller you point out, there are a couple possibilities. The first is that they are indeed paying the levy to the CPCC, but are not raising their prices because they subsidize their CD sales from their other sales. The second is that they are not playing by the rules. If they're not paying the levy, they're engaging in illegal activity, to the best of my knowledge.
One other thing to point out here is that since it's technically that the Canadian sellers pay the levy on CDs they sell as opposed to Canadian customers paying it on stuff they buy, it's perfectly legal for Canadians to purchase their CDs from the US and avoid the extra costs associated with the levy.
When I view this story, titled RIAA Says CDs Should Cost More, the "Related Stories" section has a link to a story titled Blockbuster Sued Over Late Fees Claim. Are the Related Stories hand-picked, or does Slashdot have a search engine that uses an algorithm to find stories that it thinks are related?
Usually, the related stories are related in some way, such as the Jobs Favors DRM-Free Music Distribution story listing EU Countries Call Out iTunes DRM as a related story, which makes perfect sense. But how does a story about Blockbuster getting sued over late fees get flagged as being related to the RIAA saying CDs should cost more?
The poster obviously doesn't understand what a computer is and the relationship between a computer and its software... Calling a USB stick preloaded with software a "computer on a stick" is like calling a filled gas can a "car in a can".
Yeah, the poster obviously doesn't understand what a computer is... calling a USB stick preloaded with software a "computer on a stick" is like calling a filled gas can a "car in a can".
When I read the headline, I thought they were talking about how intelligent the residents were, but no:
The ICF selects the Intelligent Community list based on how advanced the communities are in deploying broadband, building a knowledge-based workforce, combining government and private-sector "digital inclusion," fostering innovation and marketing economic development. Could have chosen a better name, couldn't they?
Oh well, I guess we'll need to put away our 'Americans r dumb' jokes for now.
Heh. Haven't heard that song in a while. My uncle has the record with this song, but it wasn't on the Allan Sherman "Best Of" CD I bought a few years back.
It's also possible that they've deliberately left the new look out of all the Leopard seeds being distributed outside of Apple, until it's officially unveiled. It wouldn't surprise me. How many people outside of Apple knew about the parallel x86 builds going on until Steve mentioned it in the keynote?
Me too. I bought a new CD and folded it up (that sure was hard to do) but I still couldn't get it to fit in that slot in the bottom. And the worst part is, now the CD won't work in a regular CD player any more!
I don't have a Nano, but both my 3rd and 5th gen iPods are usable as external drives on my Mac. You just have to go to the iPod settings in iTunes and tell it to enable it as an external HD. It's likely just a case that Nanos on Windows have that option turned on by default, or it got enabled somehow.
What stumps me is how these buyers are managing the homeless. You have to give a bum a wad of cash and watch him walk into the store and out of sight with it? There has to be some serious risk involved for the buyers. But I suppose they are thoroughly threatened before they are given the cash. Or they are escorted.
FTFA:
One elderly Chinese man, next in line to buy a PS3, was in a state of panic. He explained to a Bic Camera employee that his "friend" has his money, but that he is further back in the line. After further investigation, these poor Chinese are not given the 60,000 yen to purchase the PS3 until minutes before their reach the registers, perhaps out of fear that some will run off with the money.
I think the biggest stab at Microsoft that Apple could do, would me for Steve to come out for his keynote and talk about Leopard's features for a bit, and then come out and say, "And I'm sure you're all wondering when Leopard is going to be available. Well, guess what? We're shipping it today, a whole three weeks before Vista!"
Although I'm not expecting it, I wouldn't be surprised. I wasn't expecting the first Intel Macs to be available as early as they were.
This reminded me of this video I watched a while back, with Google Earth and Warcraft III on a giant touch-screen display using two fingers to zoom or select units, etc. Pretty cool stuff. Too bad it's probably still to expensive to hope for it to become mainstream anytime soon.
Umm, perhaps those who might be interested in this appreciate being informed ahead of time? I suspect that people who throw Halloween parties don't wait until the afternoon of the 31st to make plans and get everything they'll need.
I always wondered about that, then I realized he was actually singing "This song's just six words long". I just checked the official song title on his web site and sure enough, it's "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long".
Slashdot Mirror
Wouldn't they end up paying just the same extra cost (and perhaps extra GST/PST) while importing these items?
Yeah, I was going to mention that in my post but decided not to since we're just talking about the levy here. Tax doesn't really count as you'd be paying that in Canada anyway. Regarding duty/importing fees, it all depends on the situation. If I bought a small pack of CDs that didn't cost much I wouldn't have to pay any duty. Or the company I buy my packaging supplies from also sells CDs, and they pay all fees related to importing. But if I declared $200 worth of CDs when driving across the border, yes, I'm sure I'd definitely have to pay duty on that.
As I purchase large quantities of CD-Rs for use at my workplace, I've done some research into this.
From the seller's point of view, it's not so much that they have to charge the levy to customers, but that they themselves have to pay the levy to the CPCC for any CDs they sell (the exception being sales to customers that have a levy exemption such as my workplace). Of course, that expense is passed on to the customers in the form of higher prices. In the interest of full disclosure, I've seen some places with signs out by the CDs/DVDs outlining how much of the price goes to the levy.
In this case with the seller you point out, there are a couple possibilities. The first is that they are indeed paying the levy to the CPCC, but are not raising their prices because they subsidize their CD sales from their other sales. The second is that they are not playing by the rules. If they're not paying the levy, they're engaging in illegal activity, to the best of my knowledge.
One other thing to point out here is that since it's technically that the Canadian sellers pay the levy on CDs they sell as opposed to Canadian customers paying it on stuff they buy, it's perfectly legal for Canadians to purchase their CDs from the US and avoid the extra costs associated with the levy.
You must have missed the poster's other line: us techno-geeks don't make up a whole lot of marketshare.
I highly doubt there's many average users who have home-built PCs without Windows.
When I view this story, titled RIAA Says CDs Should Cost More, the "Related Stories" section has a link to a story titled Blockbuster Sued Over Late Fees Claim. Are the Related Stories hand-picked, or does Slashdot have a search engine that uses an algorithm to find stories that it thinks are related?
Usually, the related stories are related in some way, such as the Jobs Favors DRM-Free Music Distribution story listing EU Countries Call Out iTunes DRM as a related story, which makes perfect sense. But how does a story about Blockbuster getting sued over late fees get flagged as being related to the RIAA saying CDs should cost more?
The poster obviously doesn't understand what a computer is and the relationship between a computer and its software... Calling a USB stick preloaded with software a "computer on a stick" is like calling a filled gas can a "car in a can".
Yeah, the poster obviously doesn't understand what a computer is... calling a USB stick preloaded with software a "computer on a stick" is like calling a filled gas can a "car in a can".
The ICF selects the Intelligent Community list based on how advanced the communities are in deploying broadband, building a knowledge-based workforce, combining government and private-sector "digital inclusion," fostering innovation and marketing economic development.
Could have chosen a better name, couldn't they?
Oh well, I guess we'll need to put away our 'Americans r dumb' jokes for now.
Dude, chill. That was supposed to be a joke.
...the Mac version of these tools?
Oh, wait...
Heh. Haven't heard that song in a while. My uncle has the record with this song, but it wasn't on the Allan Sherman "Best Of" CD I bought a few years back.
It's also possible that they've deliberately left the new look out of all the Leopard seeds being distributed outside of Apple, until it's officially unveiled. It wouldn't surprise me. How many people outside of Apple knew about the parallel x86 builds going on until Steve mentioned it in the keynote?
Me too. I bought a new CD and folded it up (that sure was hard to do) but I still couldn't get it to fit in that slot in the bottom. And the worst part is, now the CD won't work in a regular CD player any more!
Who does Number Two work for?
I don't have a Nano, but both my 3rd and 5th gen iPods are usable as external drives on my Mac. You just have to go to the iPod settings in iTunes and tell it to enable it as an external HD. It's likely just a case that Nanos on Windows have that option turned on by default, or it got enabled somehow.
Why?
FTFA:
I think the biggest stab at Microsoft that Apple could do, would me for Steve to come out for his keynote and talk about Leopard's features for a bit, and then come out and say, "And I'm sure you're all wondering when Leopard is going to be available. Well, guess what? We're shipping it today, a whole three weeks before Vista!"
Although I'm not expecting it, I wouldn't be surprised. I wasn't expecting the first Intel Macs to be available as early as they were.
Another interesting one was shown on today's Rocketboom. Direct link to the pumpkin PC page is here.
This reminded me of this video I watched a while back, with Google Earth and Warcraft III on a giant touch-screen display using two fingers to zoom or select units, etc. Pretty cool stuff. Too bad it's probably still to expensive to hope for it to become mainstream anytime soon.
If someone's program takes close to 10 hours to compress 100MB it better get considerably more than just an additional 1% out of it!
Yeah, but Gameboy, GBA, and DS aren't consoles per se. I don't believe the author was meaning to include handhelds in the context of the article.
Umm, perhaps those who might be interested in this appreciate being informed ahead of time? I suspect that people who throw Halloween parties don't wait until the afternoon of the 31st to make plans and get everything they'll need.
I always wondered about that, then I realized he was actually singing "This song's just six words long". I just checked the official song title on his web site and sure enough, it's "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long".
Dammit Jim, I'm not a wordsmith!
Great way to spend an evening!