OH CANADA!,
Canada to TAX
MP3 Players $21CAD per GB!
Seems The Canada
copyright office is listening to the IFPI, the CRIA, And The RIAA.
They have issued a
proposal to put a tariff on all recordable media for 2003-2004 that
can be used for audio recording. This includes MP3 Players that are
hard drive based such as the Archos Players (more on that later).
Canadians will have to pay an outrageous amount of tax on almost
every form of recordable or removable media and non removable media.
Comments and objections are due by May 8th 2002. The rules are slated
to go into effect Jan 1, 2003. What is worse the tax would be
distributed as they see fit, no one is specifed. Want to be the first
5 filers to receive these funds are AOL Time Warner,
Vivendi/Universal, BMG, Sony, and EMI?
Some would point
out that in the US we have the AHRA. But those rates are not anywhere
near those listed below, and don't cover audio cassettes, compact
flash, SmartMedia, or hard drive based MP3 players. The rate in the
US is approx 2% on Music CDs, and about $2.00US per CD recorder.
If you are
Canadian, I would suggest buying you MP3 Players this year. Because
Next year they will be out of sight price wise.
As an example: A
$584 CAD (US $369) 20 gig Archos MP3 player would have $420 CDN (US
$265) worth of tariffs levied upon it, making the price $1004 CDN!
(US $63
Section 3
(1) Subject to
subsection (2), the levy shall be:
(a) 60¢
for each audio cassette of 40 minutes or more in length;
(b) 59¢
for each CD-R, CD-RW or each unit of any other type of recordable or
rewritable compact disc of 100 megabytes or more of storage capacity;
(c) $1.23 for
each CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio or MiniDisc;
(d) 0.8¢
for each megabyte of memory in each removable electronic memory card,
each removable flash memory storage medium of any type, or each
removable micro-hard drive;
(e) $2.27 for
each DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM or each unit of any other type of
recordable or rewritable DVD;
(f) 2.1¢
for each megabyte of memory in each non-removable electronic memory
card or each non-removable flash memory storage medium of any type
incorporated into each MP3 player or into each similar device with
internal electronic or flash memory that is intended for use
primarily to record and play music;
(g) $21 for
each gigabyte of memory in each non-removable hard drive incorporated
into each MP3 player or into each similar device with an internal
hard drive that is intended for use primarily to record and play
music. (approx. $13.26 USD per GB)
In accordance
with the provisions of the same subsection, the Board hereby gives
notice that any person who wishes to object to the statement may file
written objections with the Board, at the address indicated below,
within 60 days of the publication of this notice, that is, no later
than May 8, 2002.
CLAUDE MAJEAU
Secretary General
56 Sparks
Street, Suite 800
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0C9
(613) 952-8621 (Telephone)
(613) 952-8630 (Facsimile)
majeau.claude@cb-cda.gc.ca
(Electronic mail)
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