Proposed Canadian MP3 Player Tax Struck Down

Sgs-Cruz writes "The Globe and Mail reports that the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal has struck down the Canadian Copyright Board's proposed tax on the capacity of digital music players such as the iPod. The article also makes clear why this won't lead to an end to the levy on blank media such as CD-R in Canada."

Good and bad?

[Hemogoblin]

Here's Dr. Michael Geist's take on it:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2552/125/ [michaelgeist.ca]

While this kills the application of the private copying levy to iPods (subject to a possible appeal by the CPCC), it also means that Canadians who copy music from their CDs to their iPods are not covered by the exception and thus arguably infringe copyright. The issue therefore moves from the Federal Court of Appeal to Industry Minister Jim Prentice who must decide whether he will amend the law by creating a clear, uncompensated exception to format shift (as the United Kingdom has just proposed) or leave millions of Canadians in legal limbo.

Wow

[jmpeax]

Wouldn't taxing people for copyright violations they may commit be the best way to show them the door to illegal copying?

Never mind the fact that the taxes would apply to technology copyright holders rely on to push their content, notably digital audio players such as the iPod.

Re:Wow

[webmaster404]

Well, wouldn't suing single mothers for over $100,000 for like 10 songs counterproductive? Or how about DRM to make music fans have to pay several times to use the same song on different devices counterproductive? Or what about saying that ripping a CD onto a digital audio player should be illegal? Isn't that counterproductive? Or what about installing a rootkit onto thousands of computers to enforce DRM, isn't that counterproductive? And what about forcing people to "piracy" with "region protection" and DRM to get the media onto their devices? Face it, the media companies don't think logically. They only care about the money, they are willing to sacrifice the customer, their reputation and even the artists just to make a buck.

Re:Bad news

[webmaster404]

There are ways to get legal songs. First off there are CDs which anyone who has lived within the last 10 years probably has enough CDs to cover quite a few GB of songs. Secondly, there are songs that are free (legal) to download under CC and the like licenses. Also, there are other ways to fill up storage other than just songs, photos and videos are also there. Its as much as an argument to say "we should tax 1 TB hard drives because you can't fill up 1 TB with legal media".