Even
though the price of CD-R media has continued to decline, one thing that is set
to stay in Canada is the 21 cent levy per CD-R. The Copyright Board of
Canada has proposed the private copying levy tariff for 2007 with this same levy. While this levy did not seem as bad when CD-R media was far more expensive during its introduction back in 1999, the levy really stands out when it comes to purchasing spindles of CD-R's due to how much pricing has come down over the years, for example the $59.99 price on a spindle of 200 blank HP branded CD-R's consists of $42.00 for the levy alone! In fact, when a consumer purchases one of these spindles, they are in effect only paying $17.99 for the CD-R's and $42 on the levy.
While the
US lacks these levies, they do have fair use right where consumers are suppose to be allowed to
make personal backup copies of their content. Canada relies on levies to compensate artists each time a blank disc, tape, etc. is bought to make a copy of a music CD. Unfortunately, despite the high levy costs, this does even cover the right to copy content to other mediums, such as from a music CD to an iPod. According to Michael Geist, he reckons that the levy should be made to either allow full personal use of copyrighted material or to be abolished altogether.
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The full article can be read here. Some further info can be read on this ars technica article. |
Even though the levy system may seem like a fair way of compensating artists when it comes to copying music CDs, unfortunately there is no way to escape the levy even if one purchases CD-Rs (or other blank media) for something totally different. For example, if a company wanted to distribute some brochures using CD-R, a bulk of their cost on blank media will end up going to the music industry evening though their copying would have nothing to do with music.
Source: Michael Geist
