Canadian iPod levy assumes you're a criminal first, asks questions never

I live in Canada, and I love this setup. It doesn't assume you're a criminal, it makes storing copyrighted material legal.

Cool, so since they require that you "do the time" first, not only are you free to, but you are actually encouraged to "do the crime"......

GOOOOO Lawyers!!!

YAY! Piracy is now legal. I knew being born here would pay off eventually.

Take off, eh!

It's been years since a small levy was added to blank media like CDRs, and you know what - no-one even thinks about it any more.

The reality is that a lot of music changes hands through unlicenced channels, and regardless of how much you hate the music corporations the people who write that music deserve to make a living.

A small media levy is the best solution I've seen yet for satisfying everyone's interest in a reasonable fashion.

(that this may involve an iPod is really irrelevant)

Canadians are so lame! You tossers would all be speaking German if it wasn't for the United States! You deserve what you get you twats!

Reuger in canada we are taxed to death, so it is a stupid idea, its just another tax and there is no guarantee the money will go the artists as with the cdr levy it has not it, some has gone to the big labels but that defeats the purpose if the artist gets nothing. Why make the richer-richer. I wouldnt really care as i live beside the border and can go to the US buy an ipod for less money on a now pretty even dollar, so theres the proof it will just screw our retailers and governement will lose taxes so it will never go thru

@American - take a history lesson - Canada played a larger in ousting the Germans than the US did. Having said that, y'all had your hands full on two fronts.

In Canada we have been paying a levy on blank CD and DVD media for years.

SO how do they decide how to compensate each artist? If indeed the artists see any of this money.

The uses of "iPod" in the titles of articles that apply to digital audio devices in generally is getting to be quite obnoxious.

As someone who is heavily involved with the independent music scene, I find such levies to asinine. On top of assuming that you are going to use the media for piracy, it also assumes that you are pirating the content of the major labels/studios which represent a very small number of copyrighted content producers. There is far more copyrighted content from the non-majors that could be pirated, but those copyright holders don't receive any compensation from it.

All kinds of silly scenarios can be generated by applying this twisted logic.

Correct me if Im wrong but...
It's not really like they say. Hey! You will make illegal copies! But rather that our laws tells us that the citizens are allowed to make copies of our bought music and share those with our friends legally. This is legal but it pisses US label companies of. So they pay the price for having that law.

Um, 21 cents per CD-R is not a "small" levy when in America you can routinely get CDs for less than 10 cents each. If the tax is twice as much as the product cost, I do not call that "small", I call it Socialism.

(source: http://neil.eton.ca/copylevy.shtml -- if my info is out of date, by all means let me know)

And somebody above addressed the even-bigger problem: who decides where the money goes? Do I want a government body deciding which music deserves the most money?

iPod's aren't the only player. What about the Creative Zen? It is wrong to call MP3 players iPods. Apple didn't invent the MP3 player, they stole the technology from Creative, which first came out with a player in 2000.

So, you should say any mp3 players such as an iPod, Zen or Zune.

AndrewS is correct... I don't think this has been challenged yet in Canada, but because you are forced to pay a copyright levy, it becomes pretty much impossible to prosecute Canadians for downloading copyrighted materials... If you get a parking ticket while your car is still in the garage, leave the ticket on your car and go park anywhere you please.

Haha, does this make it legal to download music now?

Pft, money to the artists? Ya right, more like money to the recording companies. Considering artists get under 5% of the $20 you spend on a CD, I wonder how much of this levy they will get.

And about the ipod vs other mp3 things, I don't think Apple will be too happy about their player being singled out.

Socialism? WTF?!

I guess you even didn't have any discussion about alternative remuneration models for artists! Canada is very smart and has the chance to show the world that this model could work! I just hope their smart enough. Music industry is as dead as their CDs. A waste of material and subvention for a whole industry of manufacturers!

Ok, did the politicans make you think that this „piratism“ is bad? Oh I'm so sorry!

I just hope the earnings are divided fair. But still i guess music industry gets most! More than they earn!