While Canada had a blank media tax on tapes and CDs to compensate musicians and record labels for private copying, late last year the Copyright Board had also started applying taxes to MP3 players. These taxes were (in canadian dollars) $25 for >10GB followed by $15 for >1GB and $2 for lower capacity MP3 players.
Retailers and electronic manufacturers were not happy claiming that the ruling is unfair thus filed a lawsuit. Federal Judge Marc Noel ruled the law did not give authority for the levies to be applied and thus the levies until this time were not legally applied. On the other hand, the Judge did make it clear that he felt sympathetic for the Copyright Board since MP3 players could potentially do more harm than blank CDs or tapes due to the huge amount of music they can carry.
However, this lift on levies is likely to be temporary measure only as it will be for the Parliament to decide on whether MP3 players should be included in the same law as used for blank media levies. At least for the time being this means victory for retailers and manufacturers, along with giving a significant cut in prices for consumers. heystoopid used our news submit to send in the following news:
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The country's copyright regulators traditionally have imposed a small surcharge on media such as cassette tapes and blank CDs, using the revenues to pay musicians and record labels whose works are being copied at home by consumers. Late last year, the Copyright Board applied this to MP3 players, which they said consumers also used for "private copying" of music. A coalition of retailers and electronics manufacturers sued, saying the ruling was unfair. In a decision released Thursday, federal Judge Marc Noel ruled that the MP3 player fees did not seem to be supported by the letter of the law, and set them aside. "It is for Parliament to decide whether digital audio devices such as MP3 players are to be" included, he wrote. |
In my opinion, taxing MP3 players is not really a good idea since this is an item that is purchased once, that is the music industry does not keep getting compensated each time a user copies an album to it. With blank media, consumers usually use a new piece of blank media for each album or compilation they record, thus compensating the music label each time.
Then again, with MP3 players it is not clear what else
the Copyright Board could levy to that would affect MP3 player users by
usage. Tax the Internet connection and this affects everyone online.
Tax P2P services and the majority will likely avoid paying up. Add a tax
per song uploaded to the player and boy would they be asking for trouble. 
heystoopid wrote: So, now it seems that our Canadian Cousins will have a small bonus christmas present this year, with the removal of a CAN$25 tax imposed on MP3 players as it seemed the Canadian Copyright Board acted illegally by applying a tax outside the prescribe limits of the existing acts of parliament. Anyone for an amendment?
Source: C|net News - Business & legal
