Canada May Tax Legal Music Downloads

FuriousBalancing writes "MacNN is reporting that Canadians may soon pay a small tax on every legal music store download. This fee is the work of a measure proposed by the Copyright Board of Canada. About two cents would be added to every song downloaded, with 1.5 cents being added to album downloads. Streaming services and subscriptions would also be taxed, to the tune of about 6% of the monthly fee. Most interesting - the tax would be retroactively applied to every transaction processed since 1996. 'The surcharge would help compensate artists for piracy, according to SOCAN's reasoning. The publishing group draws similarities between this and a 21-cent fee already applied to blank CDs in the country; the right to copy a song from an online store demands the same sort of levy applied to copying a retail CD, SOCAN argues. The tax may have a significant impact for online stores such as iTunes and Canada-based Puretracks, which will have to factor the amount both into future and past sales.' The full text of the measure is available in PDF format."

A tax on not committing piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Because of the health costs of tobbaco, Canada is proposing a new tax on non-smokers.

So, there ya go

[SpacePunk]

Well, I can't think of anything particularly witty other than 'FUCK THEM'.

tax legal?

[Anonymous Coward]

They should tax the illegal downloads, that is where the money is!

Re:Theoretically Speaking

[Anonymous Coward]

I find your idea intriguing and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

$0.02

[Anonymous Coward]

So now they want my two cents worth as well, eh?

O Canada, Founding Myth of Piracy

[realitybath1]

O Canada!
Our home and native LAN!
True pirate love in all thy lines command.

With glowing modems we see bits rise,
The True Bits strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we fileshare tunes for thee.

God keep our tunes gloriously free!
O Canada, we fileshare tunes for thee.

O Canada, we fileshare tunes for free.

Re:What other taxes?

[Eccles]

How about we have a per child tax of $50/year to account for music piracy, starting from birth, of course.

Don't worry, you don't have to pay the tax if you're deaf, and tone-deaf get half off.

Double taxing?

[mark-t]

So they want to tax blank media _AND_ tax downloads?

Why am I reminded of the notion of charging a tax to have a meal and another tax to take a dump?

Re:Theoretically Speaking

[NotQuiteReal]

I too would like to subscribe, retroactively.

I will pay a small extra fee if I can be subscriber number 000001.

Slightly OT: Is it ok to listen to a "found" CD?

[Anonymous Coward]

If I find a commercial CD laying on the bus stop bench, can I listen to it, legally?

What if it is a CD-R, or better yet, a whole burned DVD full of nice MP3 or OGG files?

What if people started leaving "extra" copies of discs laying about for the general public to find... is it ok to listen to them?

Public sector gone mad

[Bloater]

Why don't the record labels just add 2 cents to their wholesale download prices?