"iPod tax" knocked down in Canada's court

Do you agree digital storage devices should carry more taxes? An interesting news from today

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080111/ipod_tax_080111/20080111?hub=TopStories

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Comments

iowatech

Yeah, that's the answer, tax the consumer more so it makes them less likely to download illegal music and pay for their media. (yes its sarcasm)

The record industry and movie industry need to roll with the times and find some way to make a profit or die. This battle is over and each year it becomes more clear that if the status quoe is continued they will be bankrupt.

Internet > Law (not my view but that's just reality)

Just the way it goes when normal people are connected better than ever across the world.

Plantwiz

Not a fan of taxes on things like that. However, not really sure how your Gov't works up there.

Certainly, some taxes are acceptable as things like Police Protection, Fire Protection, Highways, city streets, etc... that are used by many would run into problems if it was a pay-per incident (as people wouldn't call the Police and Fire departments...some good, but more bad would result).

Tolls on roadways are fine, but would be very annoying if incurred on each street or in our urban sprawl incurrec with each township and city we pass through to reach another business. My 40 minute communte I can easily pass through 5 communities....depending on my route into work.

A purchase tax of the item...relatively 'fair' or at least pretty normal today, but an additional tax for the storage space???? that's fairly strange and nice to see that the courts shut it down.

JDMurray

If you can't find a way to tax the product, tax the use of its (possible) storage containers.

binarysoul

This whole 'iPod tax ' seemed ridicolous from start. In an open-market economy such as Canada's why should the government be responsible for collecting a fee for an industry, i.e. recording? It's the industry's job to protect itself. Seems to me that tomorrow banks could ask for a tax on credit card since there is a lot of fraud. Seems to me that gas stations would ask for an extra tax as more and more people 'pump and drive away' without paying

Maybe I should ask for a refund from government as all investment in IT education didn't give me the six figure salary I fantasized about

Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPPC) thought buearucrats would be nice to them. Heck no, they don't want to get involved in tiny things such as a memory card on iPod.

A state's job is about governance and NOT production.

JDMurray

binarysoul wrote:

A state's job is about governance and NOT production.

It's likely Canadian politicians believe that they are protecting Canada's music industry and artists by recovering some of the money lost to file swapping/sharing. The implication is that everyone who owns an MP3 player is a music-stealing criminal, which is completely ridiculous. People who only own computers are music-stealing criminals too.

BTW, Microsoft pays a $1 tax to Universal Music for every Zune sold, supposedly allowing the American music industry to recover some of the money it will loose to music-stealing Zune owners.

Pash

iowatech wrote:

Yeah, that's the answer, tax the consumer more so it makes them less likely to download illegal music and pay for their media. (yes its sarcasm)

The record industry and movie industry need to roll with the times and find some way to make a profit or die. This battle is over and each year it becomes more clear that if the status quoe is continued they will be bankrupt.

Internet > Law (not my view but that's just reality)

Just the way it goes when normal people are connected better than ever across the world.

I don't use Itunes or anyother jazz wazz mp3 consumer programs. But isnt that the music industries attempt to actually get some return?

We all know how the internet works on these forums, sharing files is as easy as picking your nose.

What I am saying is, surely if they are offering tracks for £1 (as informed by my dad of all people

) or whatever and people still arent paying up........something is wrong.

binarysoul

Solution 1: Eventually ISP's may be forced by courts to pay the music/movie industry $1 a month/consumer as the only way they could download 'shared' files is through their ISP. This is very contraversial

I worked for an ISP, one thing they never want to get involved is worrying about content on their network. The arguement is they are 'service' and not 'content' providers unless there is court orders to investigate something.

Solution 2: Artists should change careers and become IT admins instead or stop singing or making movies for a while . Then the music/movie lovers will pay anything to get them back. What really pisses me off is all these people are a big fan of singers/acotrs, but they're willing to steal their work. Helloooooooooooo

Pash

binarysoul wrote:

Solution 1: Eventually ISP's may be forced by courts to pay the music/movie industry $1 a month/consumer as the only way they could download 'shared' files is through their ISP. This is very contraversial

I worked for an ISP, one thing they never want to get involved is worrying about content on their network. The arguement is they are 'service' and not 'content' providers unless there is court orders to investigate something.

Solution 2: Artists should change careers and become IT admins instead or stop singing or making movies for a while . Then the music/movie lovers will pay anything to get them back. What really pisses me off is all these people are a big fan of singers/acotrs, but they're willing to steal their work. Helloooooooooooo

So very true. My brother used to work with a famous UK music talent a few years ago. "Get Cape Wear Cape Fly" for anyone whos interested. Even though he was/is good mates with him still he purchased his album from the stores......if your a fan....pay up.