Canada to Raise Tariffs on Recordable Media

[lokem]

Noticed this over at Slashdot..

A new Canadian levy will be introduced in 2003 on all recordable media (pdf). The magnitude of these tariffs is staggering: $1.23 for all CD-RW's, $2.27 on all DVD-R's, and get this: $21 for each gigabyte of storage on portable MP3 players. That's an extra 160 dollars for a Nomad." Like in the U.S., this tax is collected and given directly to the record industry, a governmental subsidy for no apparent societal benefit.

./ Link: http://slashdot.org/articles/02/03/12/0243237.shtml?tid=141

I REALLY hope other countries won't be implementing this!!

 

[Didou]

I'm afraid it is starting to be the case everywhere. In France ( & soon enough unfortunately in Belgium ) they are putting up a Tax on all storage devices, even Hard Drives. It depends on the storage size & you could end up paying an extra 35$ for your HDD

There's a petition against the French Law here -> Vache Au Lait

Even if you don't understand, you can always sign it

 

[lokem]

These Taxes are really horrible. Who in the right mind would pass such a crazy bill? Weren't there any protests to this?

 

[MrGaribaldi]

Originally posted by lokem
These Taxes are really horrible. Who in the right mind would pass such a crazy bill? Weren't there any protests to this?

We have something like it in norway too...
For now it's only on tapes, but they've talked about adding it for all storage...

It's to make sure artist aren't ripped off (the money actually goes to the artists here), but they've started to go totally out of control...

The problem is politicians doesn't really understand the technology, and are thus afraid of it... And the only way they see to control it, is to add taxes....

I'm just glad the party I'm affiliated to doesn't have that stand

 

[lokem]

I was expecting a lot more noise to be made by the public for such action to be taken. I'm sure there are some limitations to what they can tax... I hope!

Just when backing up data is getting cheaper... Sigh... Thank goodness there's nothing of that sort in my country yet!