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This week's scrap collection from business beat
This week's scrap collection from the business beat
Sun Nov 9,12:41 PM ET
OTTAWA (CP) - The hidden federal levy on cassette tapes, blank CDs and other recordable media is unfair to consumers and copyright holders, and is a "poison pill" for the music industry, says a coalition of retailers and technology companies.
The levy - intended to compensate musicians and others for copying of their content - "is indiscriminate and unfair, and our customers are telling us they are unhappy," says Diane Brisebois, president of the Retail Council of Canada.
"Many consumers are forced to pay the levy even when the recordable media are not used to record copyrighted music."
The levy, in place since 1998, cost Canadians $59 million by the end of last year, according to Doug Cooper, president of Intel Canada.
"This levy was implemented at the end of the audio cassette era and has become completely out of step with fast-moving technological developments," Cooper contends.
"Why should Canadians who are buying music online have to pay for it twice - once when they download it, then again when they buy a blank recording medium on which to store the paid content?" he adds.
"Canadians don't want the music industry to double dip."
In addition to being bad for users it is bad for the content industry, he says: "The continued use of levies as a compensation tool for major record labels, publishers and artists is a disincentive to the music industry from adopting innovative technologies to protect and manage their content."
The levy - 60 cents on a cassette tape, 59 cents on a recordable CD, $1.23 on a minidisc and $2.27 on a DVD, with the industry pressing for more - is normally hidden in the retail price.
The Commons committee on Canadian heritage has received a submission from the Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, which in addition to the Retail Council and Intel includes AMD, Apple, Best Buy/Future Shop, Costco, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Radio Shack, London Drugs, Micron, Motorola, Sony, Staples Business Depot and Wal-Mart.
User Comments
(These do not necessarily reflect the beliefs of this site)
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independentm...
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Date: November 10, 2003 @ 8:14 AM
Recording artists should be paid. BOTH major label artists (whom are in the vast MINORITY) and independent artists too!
If the levy was somehow divided fairly I would not be against it much. I do think that when you use recordable media for self created music or other data storage, you shouldn't have to pay a levy or usage tax at all. I know I get sick when I think about the fact that the RIAA gets money for each CD-R I make of my own band. The vast bulk of my CD-R purchases are for my own band's music.
Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music
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INeedAlover
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Date: November 10, 2003 @ 8:49 AM
Unfortunately the levy has nothing to do with what ARTISTS get paid! There's no way to fairly justify who gets what. How do you determine who records what artist after the sale of blank media? So the RIAA record labels merely add this money to their coffers.
Yet, passing of this law has made it LEGAL to download in Canada. Repeling it might be a mistake! |
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nyer82
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Date: November 10, 2003 @ 9:36 AM
Remember the levy is probably listed in CANADIAN dollars. |
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JamesD2
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Date: November 10, 2003 @ 10:29 AM
I wonder if the Independants get any of this, seeing how thier stuff could very well be copied too, like shmoo.
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DeadMan2003
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Date: November 10, 2003 @ 10:40 AM
This is one reason I oppose compulsory licensing. Why should one person pay more just because others are downloading copyrighted material? |
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JacB
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Date: November 10, 2003 @ 10:48 AM
INeedALover: it is also a copyright infringement to dowload in Canada without permission/compensation to the copyright holder. We simply don't get the CRIA (RIAA's branch office) issuing subpoenaes. But the industry is lobbying to have that changed.
nyer82: Yes it's in Canadian dollars and the last time I checked C$1 = C$1. OK if you want to "convert" it's US$0.76 today. |
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ChairmanMao
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Date: November 10, 2003 @ 2:23 PM
I really think something like this is a good way to deal with this stuff. If the record companies would shut up about piracy and they made sure the money they got from the levy would actually make it to the artist then I wouldn't mind keeping it around. Anyway, I can still find places where I can get 100 cd's for about $30-$35 so it's not like I really find this a problem. |
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Jazzmary2U
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Date: November 10, 2003 @ 7:46 PM
My understanding is that the artist have not been paid ONE DIME of this collected "tax".. :furious: |
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theHERMlT
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Date: November 11, 2003 @ 12:31 PM
I think the RIAA are long overdue for an audit that would explore these discrepancies in thier book keeping, as well as many others.
How do you get them audited? |
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