In tech circles it is well known there is a "levy" (aka a tax) when we buy blank media like CDs and DVDs. The purpose of this tax is to compensate the music industry for the mere potential that this mere potential that the purchaser MAY use that media to hold a copy of music or video files. Now comes new that Canada will add a similar levy to iPods. (http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/07/19/2038231.shtml)
I have a few problems with this:
- the levy on CDs/DVDs has been shown to be innefectual in that there is no tracking of how much of the collected money actually goes back to music artists. Instead the Recording Industry seems to be having problems getting the cash out to the artists. (http://journalism.berkeley.edu/projects/biplog/archive/000424.html, http://michaelgeist.ca/component/option,com_content/task,view/id,1200/It...)
- If one purchases a CD, then wishes to make a backup of it for whatever reason (maybe they have cd player that occasionally damages discs?), haven't they already paid for that right? Especially if that backup copy is never distributed or even used (unless the original is damaged).
- With iPods, there is a LARGE push for users to purchase their music from iTunes. Isn't the cash collected there going to the artists? If so, isn't this a double-dip? Or wasn't this tax collected in the licensing fees Apple had to pay? So isn't this a triple or even a quadruple dip?
- Even IF a user gets a music file via a questionable method (questionable in the eyes of the Recording Industry only - I see no issue using resources that have been made available to me and feel are fair use), who's to say they will be putting this file onto an iPod. Many many Canadians need to pay a levy/tax just because the POTENTIAL to do so exists? Nothing like being innocent until proven guilty.
To me, this looks like a plain-jane cash grab on behalf of the recording media. I'm not surprised. This is the same group who decided that taking their customers to court for accessing their product was a good idea. This is the same group who only seems to target the poor with their lawsuits, regardless of what the odds of an evenly distributed demographic across financial classes would suggest.
Here's a thought. How come I have yet to hear about the Recording Industry taking a computer professional to court? Is it because these people are too smart to get caught? Or maybe it's because these people would blow the claims of the Recording Industry out of the water? Afterall these claims often hinge on questionable technical techniques for identifying where and who the culprit is. Any tech with a little networking knowledge could throw out alternative theories in a heartbeat, or suggest ways that these methods are flawed.
The more I hear the Recording Industry go on about how bad off they are, when history and corporate statements show otherwise, the more I want nothing to do with them. In my eyes, the Recording Industry is no better than the mafia. "Oh, you're listening to that song? Have you paid the listening tax? Wouldn't it be terrible if you or your family were to have an accident?" Never mind the artists who are working as slave labor (restrictive/unfair contracts, etc.) to produce the product of this Industry.