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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Fri, Dec 12th 2003 10:37am





Canada Taxing MP3 Players, But Says Downloading Songs Is Legal

from the prices-going-up... dept

Canada has decided that since MP3 players are often used to play files that were downloaded off the internet without permission, they should be taxed. Therefore, MP3 players are about to get more expensive, depending on how big their hard drives are. If I lived in Canada, I'd demand a refund. If I'm not downloading unauthorized files, then why should I be forced to pay for them? In fact, if people are paying for unauthorized files, won't this make them more likely to go download a few songs? Shouldn't they get something for their money? This lets the industry sit back and collect the tax fees rather than working to actually provide something of value to customers that they're willing to pay for. Update: While that first article focuses on the tax, over at News.com they're pointing out that the ruling also states very clearly that downloading songs from file sharing networks is legal. Uploading them is illegal, but downloading is fine.

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  1.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 12th, 2003 @ 10:50am

    No Subject Given

    Of course no one is Canada is proposing throwing music downloaders in the slammer, at least not yet :-)

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 12th, 2003 @ 11:11am

    This is nothing new...

    Canada has been taxing digital media for years now. Blank CDs were supposed to become quite expensive but you can still find a 50 spindle for $20 bux CAN (tax is hidden and added into that price)

    SD Cards, Smartmedia, etc are all supposed to be taxed too...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Ted McCallister, Dec 12th, 2003 @ 3:02pm

    A.K.A. The Bryan Adams Law

    It turns out that this law is all a sinister plan to put more money in the pocket of Bryan Adams (and to a lesser degree, Rush)! Those wiley Canadians...

    ;-)

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    identicon
    usmankhan, Apr 12th, 2008 @ 12:33pm

    beautiful song you sang

    i like the your style of singing

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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