Federal Court Overturns Copyright Levy. Kind of.
CBC.ca is reporting that the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled that the $25 levy imposed on iPods and other portable media players is to be dropped.
That’s good news as far as it goes, and the court should be applauded for the decision, but while the court agreed that the Copyright Board of Canada didn’t have the right to impose taxes (a well-exercised right reserved for Parliament), the story leaves some questions unanswered:
- When (and from whom) do I get my $50 back for the two iPods I’ve owned?
- Why does this ruling not cover blank optical media?
According to the story,
The court declined to extend its decision to blank recording media, such as cassettes and recordable CDs, so the levy on those items will remain in place.
The distinction seems arbitrary and artificial to me. How could technical details such as optical vs. magnetic media in any way influence these legal issues? An iPod is blank recording media. It’s a hard disk with buttons on it. I record meetings with mine using Griffin’s iTalk, and I store all of the music I’ve ripped from my CD collection or purchased through the iTunes Music Store on my iPod. So how is that not blank recording media? Where’s the court’s logic?
At work, we archive all of our jobs onto blank CD-Rs and DVD-Rs, and for this we have to pay a levy on all this blank media — a levy that compensates musicians for the fact that they haven’t gotten their fair share for our work. After all, why shouldn’t Anne Murray or Shania Twain be paid when I archive a web site I’ve built or a QuickTime VR photoshoot I’ve produced?
Likely the Copyright Board will appeal this ruling… Hopefully the next court to hear this case, if any, will broaden this ruling to include blank optical media, too.
