Canadian Music Industry Seeks Copy Tax On Memory Cards 265
An anonymous reader writes "The Canadian music industry's copyright collective is demanding
the creation of a new copying tax on all memory cards sold in
Canada. The Canadian Private Copying Collective has filed for a tax of
up to $3 per memory card to compensate for music copying on SD
cards. If approved, the tax could cost consumers millions of
dollars." Makes no less sense than the current levy exacted on blank CDs and audiotapes in Canada — and no more sense, either.
Digital Cameras (Score:5, Informative)
Aren't memory cards more commonly used in digital cameras than for music? I know that many phones now use memory cards for storage, but I'd have to imagine that more people have digital cameras, and multiple cards for said cameras, than people who have phones with memory cards installed....
Re:great idea (Score:4, Informative)
This is untrue. The Copyright Board of Canada has advised that the levy DOES protect copying and P2P downloading.
Re:great idea (Score:4, Informative)
I live in Germany.
They have this "tax" on various devices / media such as: writeable CDs, CD/DVD burners, printers (!), I can't remember what else.
That does not stop them going for people they think are file-sharing, copying content or whatever.
Absolute parasites. The government are just as bad for forgetting who they are supposed to be representing and going along with this theft.
Re:great idea (Score:5, Informative)
The current official government position on the existing levy is YES. There are some oddball rules, but yes.
The law as it stands right now is that you are allowed to copy for personal use providing you have the original legal copy in your possession at the time you make the recording. They don't however deal with how you came to have the original in your position. Seems reasonable enough on the surface, however it gets odd in the implementation, I'll give some examples:
- I buy a CD, I lend it to you, you copy the CD and give back the original. Perfectly legal.
- I buy a CD, I copy it and give you the copy. although the end result is identical to the first case, this way is illegal.
- I buy a CD, I copy it, I keep the copy and give you the original. Perfectly legal.
- I buy a CD, I lend it to you, you copy the CD and give back the copy. although the end result is identical to the last example, this is illegal.
Additionally, the Canadian courts have ruled that downloading music IS legal per this situation (uploading however is not)
Now I still don't like the levy, because it is paid on all blank media, regardless of what you do with said media. which means when I make server backups, the recording industry gets a cut. What may however be an even bigger miscarriage of justice though is that small independent artists, with no affiliation to the large media conglomerates, have to pay this levy on all of their blank media as well, with no hope of recovering any of it. (Large record labels don't pay the levy as they press CDs instead of buying recordable CDs and burning them)
Of course while all this is going on, the record industry is ALSO working very hard to ban copying for personal use, however I have a feeling they have no intention of having the media levy repealed when they succeed (and I say when, not if, because it has been before parliament at least twice so far, only failing due to a fall of the minority government, since the recent election the Conservatives now have a majority, and this is one of the bills they have promised to pass quickly, so unfortunately I'm pretty sure we will lose all fair use rights very soon)... and I really have a problem paying a levy on the assumption that I will do something that is illegal.
Re:The price we pay for sanity (Score:5, Informative)
It is at the moment, but the Conservative government has promised to outlaw fair use as soon as possible. The copyright reform legislation died with the previous minority government, but now that they have a majority they have vowed to pass it as quickly as possible.
Somehow I doubt they'll repeal the levy once they repeal our fair use either...
Re:great idea (Score:3, Informative)
This is untrue. The Copyright Board of Canada has advised that the levy DOES protect copying and P2P downloading.
I believe you are incorrect. The section of the revised Copyright Act [justice.gc.ca] only grants a limited right to making a private copy.
While subsection 1 of section 80 does indeed grant a limited right to make a private copy, it has restrictions, as noted in subsection 2:
(2) Subsection (1) does not apply if the act described in that subsection is done for the purpose of doing any of the following in relation to any of the things referred to in paragraphs (1)(a) to (c):
(a) selling or renting out, or by way of trade exposing or offering for sale or rental;
(b) distributing, whether or not for the purpose of trade;
(c) communicating to the public by telecommunication; or
(d) performing, or causing to be performed, in public.
You can certainly make a copy of your own CD. You can't use a P2P program to share (and because even leachers need to at least take part in sharing the data as to what parts they need of the .torrent, it can be argued that they are also taking part in (c) above, and not exempt).
The big print giveth, the fine print taketh away.
Re:Faulty logic (Score:5, Informative)
You obviously don't understand Canadian Copyright law.
Those 4 examples are all taken from the Canadian Heritage Ministry's official government website regarding the CD Levy. (I'd love to link to it, but I can't seem to find it any more)
In Canada copying for personal use is always legal providing you are copying for yourself, and from the original.