CD: $0.00189 a meg * 650 megs = $1.23 (or $1.93 for a gig!?)
HD: $0.02051 a meg * 1024 megs = $21

Why not have one rate? Why two?

And why no rate on removable flash memory?

And what defines non-removable? People (but I guess not everyone) can take hard drives out of iPods and out of Archos. Why wouldn't manufactures get around this tariff by simply making their harddrives as easy to remove as batteries? (Wouldn't that be sweet for upgrading!).
11:09:45 PM   []

The proposed Private Copying Tariff, 2003-2004 (all prices in Canadian dollars):

• $0.60 for each audio cassette (tape piracy is so old school)
• $0.59 for each CD-R/CD-RW (data)
• $1.23 for each CD-R/CD-RW (audio)
• $2.27 for each DVD-R/DVD-RW/DVD+RW/DVD-RAM
• $0.021 for each meg of non-removable memory
• $21 for each gig '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'

So my $600 iPod would have a $126 tariff on it. Or a $870 40gig Archos would sport a $840 tariff. Yes that's right. You'd pay just as much in tariffs as you would for the device! This is pure insanity! Especially if you in fact own the CDs that produced the MP3s on your devices. Also consider that the price of these devices is decreasing will the tariff is likely to only increase.

Now I've spoken with Canadian artists about tariffs already levied on CD-R/CD-RWs and they have yet to receive a penny. Maybe Celion Dion does but not your average small audience band in Canada. They're receiving nothing! In fact they're actually being penalized because chances are they're doing a lot of work on their home computers and backing up to CDs therefore paying a levy for their music that they never see.

I urge you all to come with me to the copyright consultation on March 26. The voice of the consumer must be heard. They can not and should not penalize us because the music industry is failing to provide us with the products and services that we're demanding. And please keep in mind that private copying in Canada is not illegal.

If this proposed tariff becomes a real tariff this is how we'll get around it:

• Driveless players. You'll order a 0-gig iPod then head down to your local computer store once it arrives and pick up an x gig hard drive and plop it in.
• Multi-functional players. I bought my iPod for its address book capabilites not because it's MP3 player. But realisticaly, what will they do when your Palm/Visor/Blackberry/Clio is packing 10gigs?
• Smuggle! Go down to the States and smuggle them across the border. Of course smuggling iPods will probably get you a longer jail term than crack but so be it.

Gary plays devil's advocate. So let me tell you why I think tariffs stink:

• Fair use. People pay this tariff when:
  • Backing up their work to CD
  • Making backup copies of audio CDs they own because let's face it CDs are a fragile and disposable medium (and the labels made them that way on purpose)
  • Garage bands record a CD on their home computer and distribute copies to friends
• Unequal distribution. The government can not and should not collect tariffs until it can accurately distribute these tariffs to the musicians affected by the alleged piracy occuring upon the medium that is being levied.

To solve unequal distribution Gary suggests that each artist would have their own label and that 'The end result is that small audience artists would be paid for their work according to how many they sell.'

The problem with this logic is that what if there's artists with a cult like following on the net whose fans listen to the band's music digitally but fail to buy the band's CDs? How would we compensate them? I believe that if you're going to try to distribute funds collected through tariffs or taxes you're going to have to sample what people are doing on the P2P networks, the streaming radio sites, and 'private' FTP sites. And accordingly the tariff/tax should be on residential bandwidth consumption *not* the medium because there is such a large number of non-infringing uses of blank medium.

Do we pay tariffs on blank VHS tapes? No.

I think it's very interesting that the media industries (Universal) took Sony (how ironic) to court back in 1983 (the Betamax case) because they feared the VCR. Universal lost and now today we all have VCRs and you know what? The media industry has ended up making a killing off of VCRs by renting us tapes for em. The media industry is making the same mistake now that they made 20 years ago. I can only hope that this time that mistake costs them their industry.

How long before we see tariffs imposed on the Tivo or ReplayTV? Heaven forbid the customer gets what they want.

Anyhow. If you object to the tariffs in the Statement of Proposed Levies to be Collected by CPCC for the Sale, in Canada, of Blank Audio Recording Media for the Years 2003 and 2004 then please contact Claude Majeau, Secretary General. And if you're in Ottawa there is a pre-hearing conference on May 23, 2002 where you can object in person.
1:43:32 PM   []