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Canadian Copyright Expert On Levy Proposals: Today's Quickie Legislative Solutions Are Tomorrow's Absurdities
from the $2500-iPod dept
Howard Knopf, a well known Canadian copyright expert, recently took a look at some of the failed copyright levy proposals in Canada. The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) administers the tax levy on blank CDs, which now accounts for almost 90% of the price. In 2002, similar proposals to extend the levy to DVDs and digital audio players were shot down. It's a good thing they were! Knopf notes that the $2.27 levy proposed in 2002 is now about 10 times the retail price of a blank DVD, and the $21/GB levy proposed for digital audio players would have left a 120 GB iPod (<$300 CAD) with a $2520 tax. You might think the CPCC would have decreased the levies over time, but the blank CD levy was just increased this past December (blank CDs cost more in Canada than blank DVDs). Even if the levies were lowered, it would be because they had already become unbearable. Imagine the bureaucracy and battles at the Copyright Board, and imagine the effect on Canadian consumers, tech companies in the meantime (what if the Blackberry was classified as a digital audio device?).
The point is that these quick solutions aren't solutions at all. Setting up "you're a criminal" taxes to collect money for companies that can't figure out how to adjust their business models is bound to block innovative new technologies, and you can't predict what technologies will drive new business models. As Knopf puts it, "all of this shows that today's quickie proposed legislative solutions and oft inflated tariff proposals to deal with supposedly serious crises arising from copyright and new technology are potentially tomorrows' absurdities or even nightmares."
Blaise Alleyne is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Blaise Alleyne and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.
Reader Comments (rss)
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Perhaps suggesting it would be better to more aggressively enforce copyright laws in Canada rather than applying tarif bandaids.
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http://blaise.ca/
I have to ask Blaise: What part of your CV makes you an "expert"?
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Bright Side
Yes, but at least in Canada, because you're paying that levy, you can legally burn all the copies of music CDs you want.
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Re: Bright Side
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Re: Bright Side
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Re: Bright Side
I give up.
I can't make the and gt and and lt things work...
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Sadly, these kinds of taxes are the future for Obama's America.
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Re: Re: Bright Side
try using & g t ; and & l t ; without the spaces for > and <. Post as HTML.
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Hey you Canucks!
90%! Holy crap!
I've got some friends who still live close to the border. Anyone willing to trade medicine for CD-Rs?
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Actually, Howard Knopf is a well known "copyright reform advocate". Not entirely clear that his study would have revealed anything else other than the result given.
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As well...
The CPCC got the levy by crying "oh think of the starving artists".
When asked more recently how they were doling the money out to the artists, they basically said they were giving it to labels, and leaving it up to labels to distribute the money to artists, claiming it wasn't their responsibility to ensure the money got to artists. How much you think the labels are giving to artists? None!!
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Re:
citation please
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How to remove a leech
http://wildernesssurvivalskills.org/how-to-remove-a-leech/
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Re:
The "expert" text at the bottom appears on any posts from the Insight Community that make the Techdirt front page.
Any comments on the actual post?
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Well, this wasn't so much a study as an observation. Yes, he's been an advocate against the levy, probably because he thinks a $2500 levy on a $300 ipod would have been a bad idea.
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No need, just wait 1 year and watch all the new taxes that were put in place. But if you really want one; just look at the fact that the VAT is being discussed. Talk about an economy killer!
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Re: Bright Side
You're sure about that? Germany has similar laws, only that you pay a tax for blank media (you might as well be using for other stuff) and STILL are not allowed to copy any CDs or download it via filesharing.
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So basically you are just spewing.
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Nope, just stating the obvious. Money doesn't grow on trees so paying back the bailouts not to mention our normal deficit isn't going to happen by wishful thinking.
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CD's are too bulky
Well, I copy my CD's to a disc array for backup, but I rip them to mp3s and stuff them onto a micro sd flash card for travel. At home, I mount the backup copy on my computer for daytime listening. Although my car stereo has a cd player, it also has a USB port, which I use instead. A 2gb micro sd flash card can hold about 20 CD's worth of 192kbps mp3s, plus I can rewrite them as desired.
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I for one would like to see such a levy passed. Perhaps that will be enough to open the general public's eyes, and to have them question why we even need copyright in the first place.
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... and the way in which the present administration intends to fund those liabilities is with copyright levies ?
Where do you get this inside information ?
Because I do not recall this snippet being in the news.
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