CDR Tax?

[Andrew Pratt]

Canadian Feds ponder MP3 tax

By DAVID GAMBLE -- Sun Media


OTTAWA -- Rockin' on with your MP3 or burning music CDs on your computer will cost a lot more if the federal government has its way.

Newly proposed royalty charges will add a whopping $400 to the cost of a $600 MP3 player and at least a $1.23 charge to the cost of each blank CD or MiniDisc.

Old-fashioned cassette tapes will also face an additional 40 cents charge.

All the money will go to artists as royalties designed to compensate for home recording and dubbing of CDs.

Canadians have until May 8 to file written objections to the Copyright Board. It's proposed that the charges would take effect Jan. 1, 2003.

Tory-Democratic Representative MP Grant McNally said the charges are nothing but a tax grab, calling them a "Sheila stealth tax" and accusing the government of trying to slip the charges into law with little notice.

The Copyright Board issued a notice on Saturday.

Heritage Minister Sheila Copps defended the proposed new charges as giving songwriters and musicians their due.

"Unlike the Conservative Party that claims to support to support intellectual property rights, we actually support copyright," Copps said.

[Andrew Pratt]

There's a poll on the http://www.canoe.ca site about this and so far 91 percent are against it. If this goes though I can see a mad scamble to stock up on cheap CDR's before it takes effect. I'm not totally opposed to giving some of the money to artists but $400 on a $600 machine is plain theft. Besides on CDR's I'm legally allowed to make a copy so long as its fair use...or what if its for data?

[Kevin P]

In the US we already have a "tax" on consumer recording equipment and blanks (cassettes, VHS, music CD-R, minidisc), though it's not nearly as exhorbitant as that. And on top of it it uses SCMS to allow only single generation digital copies, which isn't so bad until it's abused, such as with the new copy protected CDs.

KJP




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