A new levy for mp3 players and iPods has been proposed in Parliament.
Private Members Bill C-499 would extend the current private copying levy from blank audio cassettes, CD-R, CD-RW and DAT tapes to MP3 Players, including iPods, in order to compensate copyright holders for the distribution of copyrighted material to these devices.
Unfortunately the previous attempt to expand this levy to “digital audio recorders” called for rates up to $75 per device, which would have been passed onto consumers by the manufacturers, and would have resulted in the decimation of the Canadian sales of these devices because Canadian consumers would have imported them to avoid the additional fees.
As a consumer I oppose these levies because I believe I have already paid for the right to distribute recordings that I have purchased online to these devices. And I have also purchased the compact discs from which I make private copies, copies for personal use that are deemed legal since the passing of the Private Copying Act in 1997.
Remuneration is not required from me because I do not download music illegally off the net, yet this levy is based on the assumption that I download recordings off the net illegally simply because I own a device that can be used to store this material.
After all they had assumed that most of the previously levied items were used to make copies of copyrighted material. And this will of course result in further assumptions about film downloads, which will likely result in more levies in the future on DVD-R, DVD-RW and devices on which video can be stored or played back.
We need an equitable, logical remuneration scheme based on the realities of today’s recording industry.
Distribution is no longer limited to a physical medium like vinyl, cassette or compact disc and the consumer should not be paying for a recording every time they copy this recording to a medium when this copying is meant for personal, private use.
Please contact your local Member of Parliament and voice your opinion on this issue as soon as possible.
I will be updating this blog entry as the issue progresses.
It appears that the conservatives are not too keen on the new levy according to the Ottawa Citizen/Canwest News Service – Click here for the article.
The text of the private members bill was published on the official Parliament web site today : Private Members Bill C-499
The bill calls for the addition of the term “audio recording devices” to the private copying portion of the Copyright Act because previous attempts to have these devices recognized as “blank audio recording media” had failed.
From March 2002 to January 2008 the Canadian Private Copying Collective had attempted to have these devices recognized as “blank audio recording media” on behalf of the music industry, so that levies could be collected from the manufacturers of these devices and distributed to the various collectives in the industry.
The first rates proposed by the CPCC called for 21 cents per megabyte of memory on non removable cards or hard drives on Mp3 players and similar devices that are “intended for use primarily to record and play music” or $21 per gig of memory on Mp3 players and similar devices that are “intended for use primarily to record and play music”.
The Federal Court Of Appeals final ruling can be found here.