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On Canadian Facts, Fiction, Lobbyists and Levies

By Howard Knopf, Esq.

Ministers Clement and Moore did the right thing yesterday by saying that no means no.

The levy lobbyists did the wrong thing by denying the incontrovertible truth.

Do facts not matter any more?

The levy lobbyists are in deep denial about their own collective? recent demand for a ?tax?of $75 per iPod.

Has ACTRA lost its ability to read? Does the truth not matter any more?

The fact is that the Canadian Private Copyright Collective asked the Copyright Board for a tariff of $75.00 per iPod in 2007 for the period 2008-2009. Here?s the precise request from the proposed tariff published in the Canada Gazette:

(e) for digital audio recorders, $5 for each recorder with no more than 1 Gigabyte (GB) of memory, $25 for each recorder with more than 1 GB and no more than 10 GB of memory, $50 for each recorder with more than 10 GB and no more than 30 GB of memory, and $75 for each recorder with more than 30 GB of memory. (emphasis added)

Now, if you think that?s bad, go back only five years to 2002 for the proposed 2003-2004 tariff that would have imposed $21 per GB. Here?s the exact proposal from the Canada Gazette:

(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.

Now, for those who can?t or won?t do simple arithmetic, I?ll do it for you.

A $21 per GB tariff (?tax?) on a 160 GB iPod ?Classic? that now sells for about $270 would be - get ready for this - $3,360.00.

On a one Terabyte eternal hard drive that sells for as low as $69 in Canada, the ?tax? would be $$21,000.00.

On a three Terabyte terabyte eternal hard drive that now sells for about $220 in Canada, the tariff (?tax?) would now be $63,000.00. This is NOT a misprint.

So much for the forward thinking capacity of the Canadian Private Copying Collective.


This shows the fallacy of taxing technology. And why Minister Moore was right to call the proposed iPod tax "really toxic and, frankly, really dumb".

QED.

Thank goodness we shot these proposals down. (I acted for the Retail Council of Canada - which really does stand up for consumers).

Bravo, Ministers Clement and Moore for yeseterday?s announcement.

The CPCC should start planning for winding up. It should distribute its many remaining millions to artists - and not to lawyers, lobbyists and consultants. They have had their day on this file.

HK

Full post as published by Excess Copyright on December 15, 2010 (boomark / email).