Canada to Raise Tariffs on Recordable Media

Joel Ironstone writes: "A new Canadian levy will be introduced in 2003 on all recordable media (pdf). The magnitude of these tariffs is staggering: $1.23 for all CD-RW's, $2.27 on all DVD-R's, and get this: $21 for each gigabyte of storage on portable MP3 players. That's an extra 160 dollars for a Nomad." Like in the U.S., this tax is collected and given directly to the record industry, a governmental subsidy for no apparent societal benefit.

Making it MUCH cheaper to just buy...

[neuroticia]

Making it much cheaper to just buy Office for OS X instead of trying to put it on an ipod....

Ergh. =] At least I didn't meantion that goat site.

-Sara

Re:I see a market in smuggling MP3 players.

[red5]

You know canadians will actualy drive to the US to buy canadian beer and smuggle it back to canada.

And...

[Iamthefallen]

In other news, goverments world wide have added a tax for pen and paper and any copying techniques which will effectively raise prices by 800%. Mr. John Doeyes from GreedyBastardsPublishing was quoted saying: "This is very important for the entire books industry, after years of studying we found that people were actually copying selected sections of books! Furthermore we found that students and proffesionals were taking a lot of notes based on our material, this illegal activity must seize for the good of the nation and democracy. Copying books or exerpts is aiding communism and terrorism by blocking the freedom of fair trade.

Another proposed bill states that any books bought for multiuse purposes (meaning to be read to others) will see a price increase of 250%. Mr Doeyes again explains: We found that a large amount of parents actually read books out loud for their children, thus violating the single use license of the book. When someone reads the book out loud, 3 things happen, 1 person is reading it which is ok, then they relay the contents by voice, and another person listens, this is unacceptable because the industry loses the income it could've gotten from selling audio versions of the books. Not to mention infringing on the voice artists work by making a very poor copy of their effort, this is sheer terrorism at work! But after careful consideration we decided to only raise prices by 250% instead of 300%, this means that parents instead of buying a book license for themself, one audio license and one listeners license, they can get all 3 bundled at a lower cost, thus benefitting all.

When asked if this isn't just excuses and heavy lobbying from the book industry to increase their revenues at consumers expense Mr. Doeyes giggled like a schoolgirl and laughed all the way to the bank.

Or not, strange how different media have different rules ain't it?

Us Canadians need help

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone on Slashdot help stop this from happening. If something like this is instituted in Canada, it could be spread!

$1.23CAN

[Screaming Lunatic]

...so that's about $0.06US

silver lining Re:It already is

[peter greaves]

>you're still supporting Celine Dion's retirement fund.

yeah but at least it means she might retire sooner which would be a good thing.

Re:I see a market in smuggling MP3 players.

[ObitMan]

Well Canadians gan get all the MP3 players from us they want.
We in return want Canadian high capacity toilets.
The low water capacity toilets do not flush sufficiently for American (yes the whole continent)style loads.

"Free" trade?

[ptbrown]

Okay, someone tell me again what the **** was the point of NAFTA?

"Free" as in beer.
"Free" as in speech.
"Free" as in anal rape?

Re:One interesting thing about who gets the money.

[phunhippy]

Perhaps every canadian should start his or her own music label and thereby lay a claim to the tax..!! it could be a new kind of social welfare.. nifty thought at least..

Re:silver lining Re:It already is

[tomstdenis]

yeah but at least it means she might retire sooner which would be a good thing.

Amen to that. I wouldn't mind seeing Bryan Adams wacked as well though...

Tom

NO TAXATION WITHOUT DUPLICATION

[Anonymous Coward]

Great tax idea. If I pay a tax, it is for something I receive. So with that I receive the right to duplicate anything I want. Best yet, if it is for export I don't pay that tax. Does that mean that I can duplicate everything and export it. If so, I will start right away a company to duplicate all songs and sell them worldwide legally. That beats Napster. Again, thank you Canada to give me this opportunity.

Re:I see a market in smuggling MP3 players.

[sysadmn]

Sssh! You're not supposed to tell foreigners that we're full of sh*t!
Oh well, it's not like they don't know - We've been recycling our TV and movies overseas for years.

Re:Look at the loophole!

[Keith McClary]

If the thing already has sound on it when it crosses the border into Canada, no tarrif can be levied.
The user may then choose to keep or erase the "beep" that came with it.

Plus, if it's a Canadian "beep" then you should get a slice of the levy money when it's distributed to the "rights owners".

This just in: New bill before congress

[locust]

News flash: A new bill is making its way through the sentate. Proposed by the senator from Disney, the Unlawful Music Memorization Protection Act (UMMPA) would protect the recording industry from violations of copyright by people who know all the words to any given song, or can hum it. Extra penalties are to proposed for people who can sing. The new law would levey a charge of 10$US per word for each word of a song that a person can remeber. Harsher penalties would be incurred for humming the tune. Under the new law people would be required to report to thier local music stores on the first of next year to be examined for song lyrics they can remeber and melodies they know. The bill would also transfer the copyright for any existing or newly created piece music to the MPAA, to be held in trust on behalf of the artists.