Canadian copyright group wants new taxes to pay for piracy

[Jorge]

Unable to define memory as a "recording medium," Canada's Private Copyright Collective goes directly after portable music player devices, memory cards, and anything else that can be used to make private copies.

Canada's Private Copyright Collective hasn't given up in their efforts to get a bigger cut from anything and everything people use to copy, store, or transfer digital music with.

Not content with only the current tax on blank recording media like CD-Rs and cassette tapes, which it seeks to raise, it wants to expand taxed items to include portable music players and memory c

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[thepuzzler]

I'm for it if it legitimises piracy.

[mountain_rage]

Sad thing is that it doesn't legitimizes file sharing, they are still trying to pass a law that will be similar to the dmca. Basically this group is pushing for levies, cria is pushing for more laws restricting file sharing, and the American government is following suit pushing dmca. Then for some reason the canadian government no longer seems to support its people. I swear this shit is going to drive me into politics.

[northwest stew]

I'm for it if it legitimises piracy.

Hey lol you live in the U.K so how will you benefit?Seriously though they already had that tax in place but it was found too be illegal in federal court so it was removed .:icon_pira

[cheapprick]

Excellent. I hope they raise it.

While you're correct mountain_rage, this increase would add even more legal weight to the argument that any lawsuits are groundless. Regardless of what parliament may legislate, the SCC has proven pretty adept at basic logic.

"You can't sue somebody for doing something they are already taxed for doing." - not law, but simple reasoning.

[Jared Moya]

Thats jacked, my article just got slashdotted, uses the text verbatim but, it cites another article..

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/11/2215240

[mscheeky]

how does this tax get distributed to the musicians?

[northwest stew]

How the money is distributed is determined by the Copyright Board, which ruled for 2003-2004 that it should be distributed as follows:

• To Eligible Authors 66.0%
• To Eligible Performers 18.9%
• To Eligible Makers 15.1%

Where (roughly speaking) an author is a songwriter, a performer is a musician or singer, and a "maker" is a record production company.
Performers and makers only qualify for payment if they are Canadian. However, authors qualify regardless of their nationality.
Note that the Copyright Board does not indicate which author, performer or maker should be compensated, but simply how the funds should be apportioned amongst the three groups. The CPCC determines the amount to be distributed to each individual based on sales information (50%) and based on radio airplay (50%). This can be a complex calculation since there may be several authors and performers involved in any particular recording.
Revenue and expense summary for the CPCC as of September 15, 2003:

	2000	2001	2002
Revenue	$7,245,000	$24,258,000	$27,809,000
Expenses	$414,000	$1,073,000	$1,533,000
Expense as % of revenue	5.72%	4.42%	5.51%
Deficit at start of year	($1,934.000)	0	0
Available for distribution	$4,897,000	$23,185,000	$26,276,000

[mscheeky]

good answer & nice work on the vault