Canadian CD-R levy no longer applicable on alll sold discs

June 16, 2003

In Canada and in many other
countries troughout the world there is a levy on CD recordable discs. These
additional taxes are put in place to compensate copyright holders for
home-copying of their works. But of course in some industries also CD-Rs are
used and certainly not for copying of movies, music and software.

In
some industries the CD is considered a decent backup medium, and/or used to
put own content on it. The Canadian goverment has recognized this problem and
has therefor decided that certain industries will be relieved from this tax.

The controversial scheme put a number of businesses
and organizations in the difficult position of having to pay a surcharge
designed to offset losses by the recording industry and its related
artists due to the popularity of music file-swapping services. Among those
exempted under the new guidelines are educational institutions,
broadcasters, law-enforcement agencies, advertising agencies, the music,
film and video industries, courts, tribunals and court reporters,
religious organizations, telemarketing firms, software companies,
duplication facilities, medical institutions, technology companies,
conference and training companies, governments and other firms duplicating
audio and data for business use.

Also exempted are societies, associations and corporations that
represent perceptually impaired people, defined as those with "a
disability that prevents or inhibits a person from reading or hearing a
literary, musical, dramatic or artistic work in its original format. A
"zero" rating means that although the levy remains in place, it will be
set to zero for exempted
members.