Copyright Board of Canada Adds Hefty Levy To Blank CD-Rs
12/11/2008 By Brock Thiessen

The levy on blank CDs is going up almost 40 percent in Canada, significantly bumping up the cost of making copies of music many people have already legally paid for and legally own.

Following a decision by the Copyright Board of Canada, the Private Copying Tariff on blank CDs will now jump to 29 cents per disc, from 21 cents, adding about another $8 to the price of a 100-CD spindle. The same goes for MiniDiscs, while audio cassettes are staying at 24 cents per tape.

The increase is expected to generate about $30 million dollars annually, with the money being used to help compensate artists for the losses they suffer from music piracy.

Strangely enough, blank DVDs are not subject to the added fee even though they hold nearly seven times the data, a move that copyright expert Michael Geist says doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

"The 29 cents is so much relative to the price of the CD that Canadians have either turned to blank DVDs instead... or they buy outside the country," Geist, Canada’s research chair of Internet and e-commerce law, told the Canadian Press. "Increasing the levy without addressing the root problems I think only exacerbates the problem."

Geist went on to say that many of the songs people are burning onto CD were legally purchased through digital retailers such as iTunes and that there needs to be better clarification about consumers’ rights.

"There are consumers out there who are paying tens of millions of dollars and they get the music industry basically saying they're not permitted to make the copies they feel they've paid for," he said. "The recording industry has been consistent in trying to muddy the waters and make claims that all downloading is somehow illegal, despite the presence of the levy."

The Canadian Private Copying Collective doesn’t see the issue in the same way, applauding the increase and saying it's needed now more than ever in these rocky economic times.

"It is of even more importance that rights holders receive the compensation to which they are entitled," said board chair Annie Morin in a statement.

The organization has also petitioned to add similar levies to the prices of digital memory cards and MP3 players but has been unsuccessful.

Most of the revenue generated from the tariff goes to SOCAN, the Canadian Mechanical Reproduction Rights Agency and the Society for Reproduction Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers in Canada, as well as to eligible artists through the Neighbouring Rights Collective of Canada.
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