CPCC lobbies for iPod tax

Canada's Private Copyright Collective (CPCC) is again moving to tax consumers who purchase iPods in an effort to compensate artists for revenue lost to private copying. The group lobbied to add MP3 players to the tariff last year, but a Canadian Federal court struck down the notion. The Canadian Supreme Court in late July of 2006 refused to hear further arguments on the matter because the law did not explicitly include digital music players' memory and hard drives among its list of recording media, according to Reg Hardware.

Now the CPCC submitted a new plea -- saying it wants taxes levied on MP3 players in amounts of CAD5 for players up to 1GB, CAD25 for players storing up to 10GB, CAD50 for players holding between 10GB-30GB, and CAD75 for any player holding more than 30GB.

The organization says portable MP3 players are audio recording media in their own right, and are covered by the Copyright Act which means the levy can apply. The CPCC also wants to add memory cards to the list of taxed items with a fee from CAD2-10 for SD, MMC, Memory Stick, and other cards.

by MacNN Staff