Canadian Recording Industry Wants CD Levy Raised 19
CTI Colt writes: "Well, they're at it again. This article reports that the recording industry in Canada has applied to the Canadian Copyright Board for a hearing on increasing the CD levy (which was set at 5.2 cents originally). They want it raised to 50 cents for every CD and CD/RW (audio use or not), as well as applying for a levy increase on blank cassette tapes. The board will hear their motion on Oct. 24 of this year. Start the campaign against this insanity now!" I like to run articles like this because it helps raise awareness that you are already being taxed (in the U.S. too) for "piracy", money that goes straight to the music industry. It's a cunning tax that mostly falls into the out-of-sight, out-of-mind category.
Re:companies cause piracy (Score:1)
Re:Write your MLA and let them know how you'll vot (Score:1)
Stockwell Day is an anti-abortionist, right-wing, seclusionist, racist politician who likes to avoid questions and panders to the lowest common denominator, even when that is most certainly not the moral high-ground. i'd rather have another five years of liberals than the canadian alliance
Maybe, but they're not getting elected on those issues. They're getting elected on the fact that I make a contribution to the government of nearly $2,000/month. That's insane. Absolutely insane. Anyone billing to reduce that by half is getting my vote, period, end of sale. I'm sick of the liberals wasting my money, and Joe Clark.. well, he was cool when my parents were 20. So in my world, it's the best of some bad choices, unless the PC's or Liberals would like to cut my taxes instead of losing a billion dollars here and there and spending it on whiney bleeding heart scam job creation grants instead of hospitals.
For the record, too. On the aforementioned "moral issues", representatives vote as they are told to by the people they represent, not the party line - like the liberals and conservates have to, lest Joe Clark or Cretien get medieval on your ass. This is how _I_ think this should work. Then you get _fair representation_. Sure there are areas of Canada pro-life just as there are areas pro-choice. I suggest you read the party platform before blindly charging off.
And, to keep this on-topic: Your MLA as well as your MP can have an effect (I put in the right link to the MP search page, FWIW.) The provinces can tell the federal parties people are pissed, and they might listen, maybe.
Unless you're working for the government, of course.
Nothing to do with software (Score:1)
Re:I support this wholeheartedly... (Score:1)
On this note, a link to RMS' article The Right Way to Tax DAT [gnu.org] is appropriate here. This essay has been mentioned in conjunction with the topic of the Canadian CD-R levy before.
Re:Logic Flaw? (Score:1)
This point was raised in the 1980s when someone proposed that a levy should be put on blank floppies & tapes to compensate the software industry for piracy -- it was thought that people would start copying more software because they'd already paid the "piracy tax".
I think it's crap that the Industry here can jump to the conclusion that all CD-R's are being used to pirate songs - I mean, it really smacks of FUD. They can piss off if they think they're going to get any revenue out of me because I want to burn a few Debian or Red Hat CD's.
companies cause piracy (Score:1)
If stuff like this happens in the US I plan to start getting my friends and I split the cost of the original cd and burn copies of it! We'll just roll dice or something to see who gets the original copy.
Re:Write your MLA and let them know how you'll vot (Score:1)
Re:Write your MLA and let them know how you'll vot (Score:1)
I support this wholeheartedly... (Score:1)
If it isn't, then its ludicrous. How exactly can you quantify sales that weren't made?
Wow... Useless! (Score:1)
Or would this still apply to online purchases, even if the manufacturers are across the border?
If not, I'll make this deal. Canadians, I will give you cheaper media. You give me a 3.5-gallon-per-flush toilet [herald.com].
Re:Wow... Useless! (Score:1)
My friends and I are anime fans, and I could be paranoid, but it's funny how customs treats anime.
I order an $80 CPU, no customs charge.
I order a Laserdisc player, $20 charge.
New hard drive, can't remember but the charge was small.
I ordered $40 of tapes, $20 charge.
A friend ordered some DragonBall Z episodes, and they were confiscated because they were "pornography." (WTF?! It's a Saturday morning cartoon!)
He ordered some more, and they were stopped because the company he ordered from "didn't have distribution rights to DBZ in Canada."
Basically, customs has power to do whatever it likes. If this sounds unbelievable, here are some related links:
CBC#2 History and case study [quadrant.net]
A history of censorship in Canada [lectlaw.com]
Racial profiling by customs [geocities.com]
Rec Industry responsible for violent outbreaks (Score:1)
The classic outcome of this, is that the smart (read : the hungry) will simply purchase their cd's elsewhere and smuggle them in here. Heck, if a bunch of indians can sell contraband cigarettes at 2-3$ a pack, what's holding someone from selling contraband CD-R spindles ? Will the canadian RIAA start doing spot-checks in stores to ensure that the cd's have been properly taxed ? Yeah right!
How about a class-action lawsuit? (Score:2)
Under the doctrine of "innocent until proven guily", shouldn't the burden be on them to prove, without violating any of my constitutionally protected rights, that I'm not using blank tape or whatever to archive my airchecks and commercial production from my radio days but instead that I'm bootlegging whatever that unlistenable stuff they're getting rich from this days is?
Re:Logic Flaw? (Score:2)
Think about how much it grates to pay money to your competitors! (Unless you sell discs by the many-thousands, it's more cost effective to use CD-R media.) IIRC, the US (today) does not impose a "tax" to compensate for software piracy, but you can imagine how I will feel about paying Microsoft pennies per disc for something *I* give away for free - just because they're worried that I *could* use the same media to produce illicit copies of their bug-ridden bloatware!
Think about the sites that use CD-R as their primary back-up media - that's typically 200 disks/year/backup system. With a $0.50/disc tax, that's $100 pissed away while you're doing nothing that comes remotely close to being illegal.
Write your MLA and let them know how you'll vote.. (Score:2)
Why should I feel guilty about pirating music now, if artists are getting their fill? I would not that this only protects certain artists, and not the ones that need it most.
Write your MLA and get vocal on this. I can stomach the 5.2 cents, but as we all know in Canada, once a tax gets started it takes on a life of it's own. This is sick. Oh wait, this isn't a tax.
Make sure to mention that this "tax" assumes that anyone buying CDRs is guilty of a federal crime, and then ask the MLA if their children have PC's and if they have bought them any CDRs recently. Make sure you'd love to know in a public forum how they feel about being pirates, as they must be, because they're happily paying the pirate tax.
You can find out who your MLA is and their email/contact information right here. A phone call or a written letter is a lot more powerful than an email; Last time I at least got a written reply back explaining why the spineless bastard was voting with the party line. [elections.ca]
If you're sick of partisan politics, vote for the Canadian Alliance [canadianalliance.ca] next time. Their members must vote on issues as their consistuants feel; Not the party line.
They'll tax it at the border like everything else. (Score:2)
You'll just get popped when the package clears the border and a bill in the mail.
Recording Industry in its dying (finest?) hours... (Score:2)
I think it's clear to anyone who has been following the recent developments on the music scene that we are going to bury the "industry" and finally return music to an artform.
MPAA can sue Napster, MyMP3, Gnutella, or whatever, but that's just fighting the symptoms while ignoring the cause. We've been victims to a cartel, an extortion practice the big recording companies have unleashed upon us the consumers as well as the contemporary "artists" (have to put it under quotes because vast majority of vocal and instrumental entertainers don't deserve to be called artists).
Once we're back to basics I foresee a rennaisance of music. People will create music as a form of expression and not because they answered an ad in a tabloid.
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Tax everything (Score:2)
And what about crowbars? I mean, not everyone uses crowbars to pry open their *own* doors. Since it's a tool that could be used for theft, we need to tax the sale of crowbars, so that the victims of B&Es can get compensation.
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Logic Flaw? (Score:3)
Being with you, it's just one epiphany after another