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Objection to the proposed Private Copying Tariff increases

Dear Claude Majeau,

I intend to participate actively in the process leading to the certification of the private copying tariff. Consequently, this constitutes my formal objection to the proposed statement filed by CPCC.

I have read the information set out in the Board's notice published in the Canada Gazette on March 9, 2002 with CPCC's proposed statement. I understand the duties that I undertake as an objector and intend to abide by them.

I do not intend to participate in the pre-hearing conference to be held Thursday, May 23, though if you have intend to hold public consultations in Toronto I will attend.

My objections:

1) Cost: With 40 gig portable MP3 players on the market (i.e. the Archos) a $21/gig tariff would double the cost of the device to $1710 ($870 for the device $840 for the tariffs). While this tariff may benefit the music industry, the music industry dwarfs the size of the electronic industry who will certainly bring to your attention the downward pressure such a large tariff will apply to retail sales. Also please keep in mind that rapid advances in technology will continue to drive down prices of portable MP3 players to the point where this tariff will be many multiples of the retail cost of the device. Consumers will be disillusioned paying a 200%+ tariff on their electronic devices and then paying tax on that tariff since it's not collected at the point of sale.

I also fail to see why there is such a large discrepancy between the tariff per megabyte of audio CDs, $0.00189 a meg, and that of a non-removable hard drive, $0.02051 a meg. It would seem that a CD passed around amongst friends would lead to a higher rate of personal copying than a non-removable hard drive device would. I firmly believe that data storage is data storage and that a tariff per megabyte should be decided which would be applied equally across all mediums.

I also fail to see why the rates are increasing as largely as they are between 2001-2002 and 2003-2004. In effect they've tripled while inflation is only 3-4% a year. The music industry will also have a hard time showing that their loses as a result of piracy have tripled since in Canada the number of units shipped has only slipped 3.4% from 2000 to 2001.

2) Circumvention: It appears to be a trivial exercise to by pass these tariffs. For instance manufactures will begin to sell driveless MP3 players making them effectively 0 gig devices and consumers will then purchase the hard drive separately in the size that they desire since the hard drives used are simply generic note book hard drives.

It would also seem that this tariff would encourage a large number of consumers to instead of buying their electronic devices and storage mediums in Canada to purchase them from the United States and since they're not intending to re-sell the devices in Canada a tariff wouldn't be levied.

Also, the convergence of handheld computers and portable music devices is just around the corner so what will be done when Palms/Blackberrys/Clios/Visors sport 10 gig slim hard drives making them capable of playing MP3s but because of their multitude of functions aren't considered a device 'intended for use primarily to record and play music'?

Thank you for your consideration,

Matt Goyer
mgoyer@fairtunes.com
207 Erb St W
Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 1V6
519-589-1600



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Last update: 4/11/2005; 11:12:22 PM.