Re: ``Blank Media'' Tariff Increase
December Update
This is set to go ahead anyway in January, 2003. cbc, ToStar, ToStar, CPCC Press release, earlier Wired News article, a comprehensive FAQ on the levy, including the proposed increase.
Most of the results of this levy go to American musicians.
Interesting note: it is (technically, apparently) legal to make copies of other people's CDs for your own use. That is, you may copy your friend's CD so long as you're not going to go and sell it. Please do this, especially if the artist is ``popular'' enough to warrent compensation from the CPCC. Important note: you cannot make a copy for someone, but you can lend them all the equipment and help to do so themselves. (I guess technically this means you could walk them through the whole deal. I will be writing a script to do this; anyone who wants to come to my house and burn a CD will need to type ``copycd'' and press ``enter'' all by themselves and buy a blank CDR from me. Lots of software to do this with a nice GUI on GNU/Linux and Windows exists...)
Earlier Coverage
As recently reported in the Gazette, [1] the Canadian Government is proposing to further increase the tariffs imposed on blank recording media, such as Compact Discs, magnetic drives and memory devices.
[1] -- Found online at <www.cb-cda.gc.ca>
These tariffs are immoral and should be eliminated, not expanded.
Background
The Canadian Government -- like many other governments -- imposes huge restrictions on its citizens through the enactment of Copyright legislation. Historically, this legal tool was justified because it was thought that it increased the amount of public-domain art available to the citizens of a country.
Despite a complete failure to demonstrate the veracity of this justification -- indeed, despite government boards recommending the weakening of copyright restrictions as early as the 1970's -- the Canadian government has recklessly followed a course of increasing the breadth and strength of Copyright law. Many of the restrictions are encoded in international agreements like NAFTA and the WTO.
I have read calculations [2] which suggest that the current copyright scheme in the US (which is somewhat stronger than Canada's) results in economic costs which are 99.99% the same as having infinitely-long copyrights -- a situation which is clearly against the historical mandate of Copyright.
[2] -- Online at <www.winterspeak.com>
(More about Copyright may be read at my Web site [3] .)
The justification of continuing Copyright itself is missing. Despite this, the Government chooses to impose on its citizens a horrible inversion of one of the most basic tenants of our legal system: that one is to be considered innocent until proven guilty.
What's wrong with Copyright levies?
Usually, when someone undertakes some action it is presumed that they are innocent of any wrongdoing unless a court of law shows them to be in error. This is not true when one wishes to purchase blank recording media.
Instead, the Government presumes that the person buying blank media is going to ``pirate'' (the pejorative commonly used to wrongly demonize people who copy digital information) some music.
Worse yet, the Government presumes that the person in question is going to ``pirate'' the most popular music in Canada.
Now, the Government is proposing to extend this perverted presumption to more types of media: various forms of memory, some hard-drives (depending on how the Government thinks they'll be used), Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) and more types of blank Compact Discs (including those intended solely for use on computers).
So?
What this means -- besides horribly inflated prices (doubled in many cases [4] ) -- is that people who employ their blank media for perfectly legitimate purposes are punished for their innocence:
[4] -- For example, a Creative Nomad MP3 player would have over $400 in taxes imposed upon it under the proposed scheme. It retails for around $350 US. Blank CDs will double in price with a $0.59 tariff.
It means that people who make backups of their computer data onto CDs are punished for their innocence.
It means that people who wish to make backups of their expensive CD collection -- recognizing the almost comical non-robustness [5] of the Compact Disc medium -- are punished for their innocence.
[5] -- A medium where a tiny scratch can render much of the disc useless.
It means people who wish to take their music with them in a portable MP3 player or PDA are punished for their innocence.
It means that less-well-known musicians who wish to release their own work on their own time have to pay money to other more-popular musicians for the ``privilege'' of doing so.
Conclusion
This is a horrible inversion of Justice. The Copyright tariffs should be eliminated, not increased and extended.