Actually, CDs are fairly useful. Live discs don't work so well using dvds and installing onto a portable hdd defeats the purpose. And for a more permanent form than a memory stick with reasonable transfer/burn speeds. And they work in more dvd players than dvds for a photo slideshow that you can send to relatives to pretend you care. lolz

Wow, I think most of you are missing the point here. This levy has kept downloaders safe from organizations like the RIAA & CRIA for years. Not one single successful "piracy" lawsuit brought against a Canadian citizent over downloaded music. The Copyright Board of Canada has included downloading music in the list of "private copying" activities for which tariffs on blank media applied. See here. I'll glady continue to pay this levy and be thankful for the protection it offers me.

I can get a good 1 TB Hard Drive for less than $100. It's kinda ridiculous don't you think?

Originally posted by susieqbbb:

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This is funny.

You raise the rates of blank media then people will just go online and purchase there media from a outside source and tell you where to go.

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What is shitty for most Canadians is the importing to Canada exspecially from the USA. Most companies wont ship US Postal they always insist on Fedex or UPS which shipping to Canada can then add on a $30+ brokerage fee.

Sometimes the shipping and brokerage is just not worth it for us.

Originally posted by mjlambert:

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What is shitty for most Canadians is the importing to Canada exspecially from the USA. Most companies wont ship US Postal they always insist on Fedex or UPS which shipping to Canada can then add on a $30+ brokerage fee.

Sometimes the shipping and brokerage is just not worth it for us.

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I've been wondered about this as well. I live in Denmark, and a lot of stuff is much cheaper for us to buy in the U.S., even when you add customs and VAT. But the shipping costs will often make it to expensive.

On topic: We've had a blank media tax in Denmark since around the same time as it was introduced in Canada. It's currently a fixed tax of around .30 USD on CD's and .55 USD on DVD's, but it used to be much higher, and based on the capacity of the media. DVD's used to have around 2.50 USD tax on them, but the taxing model was changed a few years ago, to combat the extensive import of media from countries like Germany, that has no tax on blank media. It's still cheaper to import though, and it's perfectly legal too.

Yes shipping is not allways great for most of us.

In Canada if we can get the item shipped here via US Postal it works out very well for us as we just need to pay the taxes on the declared value.

However most companies insisting on shipping via Fedex or UPS as they already have accounts setup with them and its less hassel than going to the post office and that sort of thing. However to bring that package into canada it has to have a broker and they charge $30 per package for brokerage fee's sometimes more.


I also feel that we are being treated unfairly! I mean while yes alot of pirecy goes on man of us use CD media for much more than just that.

I am a professional photographer and between my data backs, Proofs for clients and wedding cd's in general i go through thousands a year and it adds up.

Speaking of shipping to Canada from U.S....anyone look at newegg.ca? Shipping charges as well as prices are through the f'ing ROOF. Seriously thinking about moving back to the states (I live in Ontario..it SUCKS).

Originally posted by aragorn29:

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Wow, I think most of you are missing the point here. This levy has kept downloaders safe from organizations like the RIAA & CRIA for years. Not one single successful "piracy" lawsuit brought against a Canadian citizent over downloaded music. The Copyright Board of Canada has included downloading music in the list of "private copying" activities for which tariffs on blank media applied. See here. I'll glady continue to pay this levy and be thankful for the protection it offers me.

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well guess your right, the only problem is for people that write thier own music.

If you have a business in Denmark, you can actually get a refund on the tax, if you only use the media for your own material. So I guess composers, photographers and others, who use a lot of CD/DVD's could just register a personally owned company, and avoid the tax that way. Many of them probably do that anyway.

I am sure the RIAA goes after rich and poor. The rich are smart enough to get good lawyers so the RIAA has to back off. Their half -ass attacks are easily challanged. They have the problem, to make an air tight case they need to break the law. I suspect now they are not trying to make a good case. Instead they go after more persons and drop the cases that are defended by a good lawyer.

Why would you think Canada would have a better class of law makers than the rest of the world? I am sure they were paid good money for their work. Be happy that they are taxing the wrong item. Are you all stupid? Do you really what them to tax ipods and DVDs? Lucky for you they can't read. Otherwise they might be getting ideas by reading this thread.

So for a measly .08 cents per disc, Canada is going to pi$$ off the whole of it's citizenry! LMAO ! Watch what they are going to do to NY state. Tax everything!! NY is broke.

Originally posted by aragorn29:

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Wow, I think most of you are missing the point here. This levy has kept downloaders safe from organizations like the RIAA & CRIA for years. Not one single successful "piracy" lawsuit brought against a Canadian citizent over downloaded music. The Copyright Board of Canada has included downloading music in the list of "private copying" activities for which tariffs on blank media applied. See here. I'll glady continue to pay this levy and be thankful for the protection it offers me.

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So the tax means that copying is allowed? Niiiiiiice. Given current copyright laws, just ripping a cd to mp3 to put on portable player is illegal. So that is actually a really good idea. And so worth paying.

chrissd, only the RIAA contends ripping CDs is illegal. The copyright laws of most countries protect personal copies of copywrited material. Otherwise the libraries would need to go to jail. They actually provide copy machines to copy copyrighted material.

I did not fully take in aragorn29 statement. Even though tens of thousands of person have been 'wacked' for file sharing it has not been deturmined in court that P2P is not copying for personal use because only one case went to court. That case has never been resolved. The RIAA was able to prove Jamie Thomas in fact used P2P. They failed to prove that she broke the law. Her defence contends she did so for personal use which is not agaist the law. I suspect that case will never go to court.

Maybe CA has the only smart law out there. P2P is a grey area of the law. Tax it and do not clog up the courts with P2P garbage.

CD as a media grows old. Just Accept the fact. Nowadays OS/games/ect are all orginally in either DVD or something other than CD or older medias.

CD like media will keep on going, but I'm wordering when will they stop using CD as media in music industry? LP--->C-kasset--->CD--->Internet--->????

I don't personally give a crap about blank CD prices. I've got 400 blank DVD's and they cost me less than 130€ and virtually have 1720Gb worth of space. Thats about 1.68Tb worth of space.

It's just that some files are to be cut in pieces to fit then even to the DVD's. Take example Raw record file of a 3 hour long match in 8mbps. I'm not sure if it would even fit to a dual-layer DVD.

Originally posted by FrostRose:

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CD as a media grows old. Just Accept the fact. Nowadays OS/games/ect are all orginally in either DVD or something other than CD or older medias.

CD like media will keep on going, but I'm wordering when will they stop using CD as media in music industry? LP--->C-kasset--->CD--->Internet--->????

I don't personally give a crap about blank CD prices. I've got 400 blank DVD's and they cost me less than 130€ and virtually have 1720Gb worth of space. Thats about 1.68Tb worth of space.

It's just that some files are to be cut in pieces to fit then even to the DVD's. Take example Raw record file of a 3 hour long match in 8mbps. I'm not sure if it would even fit to a dual-layer DVD.

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Ya but DVD is enxt...

I see severeal people hate this idea.
But remember blank tapes?? There was a tax on them to be funneled to the record industry. This could be better in the long run. It is possible for the RIAA and MPAA to be a little bit more leniente regarding pirates if they are getting money via blank cd/dvd sales. It could be that the industry is realizing that they'll never stop pirates, so why not pass the troubles onto the cd manufactors, via higher costs.

Originally posted by lawndog:

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I see severeal people hate this idea.
But remember blank tapes?? There was a tax on them to be funneled to the record industry. This could be better in the long run. It is possible for the RIAA and MPAA to be a little bit more leniente regarding pirates if they are getting money via blank cd/dvd sales. It could be that the industry is realizing that they'll never stop pirates, so why not pass the troubles onto the cd manufactors, via higher costs.

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I do not see a problem with a reasoanble tax on data storage devices as long as the media nazis stop pestering the populace with their inept MP police.

thats kinda my hope in the long run. The RIAA and MPAA have been unSUCKSessful, as well they should be, in the courts going after so called pirates. My hopes are that the money that would be generated via the tax would be enough to coat there seemingless bottomless pockets. P2P is here to stay no matter what governing properties thinkk or try to do. The so called pirate killer blu-ray has already been cracked, although theres a newer program, it's only a better of time before it gets cracked to.
No matter how smart they think they are, others are always smarter.
So now with this develpment they can still get their (RIAA, MPAA) money, while the general consumer can still do what they do, whether they like it or.
To me it seems like an almost win/win

Originally posted by lawndog:

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thats kinda my hope in the long run. The RIAA and MPAA have been unSUCKSessful, as well they should be, in the courts going after so called pirates. My hopes are that the money that would be generated via the tax would be enough to coat there seemingless bottomless pockets. P2P is here to stay no matter what governing properties thinkk or try to do. The so called pirate killer blu-ray has already been cracked, although theres a newer program, it's only a better of time before it gets cracked to.
No matter how smart they think they are, others are always smarter.
So now with this develpment they can still get their (RIAA, MPAA) money, while the general consumer can still do what they do, whether they like it or.
To me it seems like an almost win/win

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Thus why I think a profit via multiple license,basically they contract out licensees and get X amount of the profit thats made forget price schemes and whatnot put that cost on the retailer/seller and them price it as they need it to stay in buissness, a true free market demand will automatically keep prices at a level everyone can make a profit off of. Focusing on the "profit model" IE multiple streams of smaller but more numerous steames of revenue would be more correct for media, a distribution focus is silly as stuff can not be protected but for cases of illicit profit.

um theres alot of big words there that confuse me.
But I think we agree????
oh wait reread it......
do you think a genral prices not a tax would be better suited???
like per say....
Cd bundle cost $25.00 regualer tax of 8.25%
but a fraction of the initial $25.00 goes to the money groubling whores???

Originally posted by lawndog:

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um theres alot of big words there that confuse me.
But I think we agree????
oh wait reread it......
do you think a genral prices not a tax would be better suited???
like per say....
Cd bundle cost $25.00 regualer tax of 8.25%
but a fraction of the initial $25.00 goes to the money groubling whores???

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A tax, or percentage of the total retail price is fine.

==========================================

Oh sorry I have all these unfinished ideas in my head and they come out worse since I suck at grammar, I am drooling about changing the nature of Copy right from a distribution based model where the rights owner has absolute control over the distribution of the CP but for limited instances of first sale,used and what not, to a profit based model where the rights owners have absolute right to profit off the profit off the CP, this makes it so free distribution is hard to touched it also allows for wider user content,parodies,fair use and a kind of public domain status for anything thats given away for free.
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ah ok i gotcha now.
I always found it odd that places that resell cds/dvds/games don't ever come under scrutiniy from governing entities. IE: blockbuster/movie trading company/used stuff on amazon/gamestop???
what makes them so special, is it because the have a tax??
Ah who knows big corporations have always screwed the little guys

Originally posted by lawndog:

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ah ok i gotcha now.
I always found it odd that places that resell cds/dvds/games don't ever come under scrutiniy from governing entities. IE: blockbuster/movie trading company/used stuff on amazon/gamestop???
what makes them so special, is it because the have a tax??
Ah who knows big corporations have always screwed the little guys

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The bigger rental chains have a license contract of some kind with big media, ma and pa outfits don't need such a cumbersome contract as far as I know.

In a sense its the profit based model I have in mind instead of the rights holder making/publishing 90-100% of the media packages, license it out and gain multiple revenue streams instead of a few larger ones.

AS far as I can see the tax would be placed the retail packaged blank media, the way taxes work 1-5% of the tax goes into management of the taxation system, hell with computerized retail the industry could easily add 5-10% for the "tax" and send in the tribute to big media with statistics of sales and what not.

A voluntary "tax" system for profit shareing is not a bad idea even more so if the larger compines would make better incentives to get retail and ma and pa outlets to come join and be part of the system.

As I see it the current retail/CP system makes more bloated and lazy companies more apt to slow growth and stagnant art and the industry than anythign sale.

Quote:

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Originally posted by susieqbbb:

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This is funny.

You raise the rates of blank media then people will just go online and purchase there media from a outside source and tell you where to go.

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What is shitty for most Canadians is the importing to Canada exspecially from the USA. Most companies wont ship US Postal they always insist on Fedex or UPS which shipping to Canada can then add on a $30+ brokerage fee.

Sometimes the shipping and brokerage is just not worth it for us.

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that reminds me of one time going from canada to the states there was this lady that got charged $400 for brining an orange down. was it not like the orange wasnt grown in the US anyway?

that doesnt make sense to me.

Quote:

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Quote:

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Originally posted by susieqbbb:

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This is funny.

You raise the rates of blank media then people will just go online and purchase there media from a outside source and tell you where to go.

---

What is shitty for most Canadians is the importing to Canada exspecially from the USA. Most companies wont ship US Postal they always insist on Fedex or UPS which shipping to Canada can then add on a $30+ brokerage fee.

Sometimes the shipping and brokerage is just not worth it for us.

---

that reminds me of one time going from canada to the states there was this lady that got charged $400 for brining an orange down. was it not like the orange wasnt grown in the US anyway?

that doesnt make sense to me.

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For some things it brings over disease the region is not use to and create huge problems, when imported via a importer they spray and do other things to limit biological contamination.

Altho the more they out source such things they should just charge a flat fee for bringing it in youerself...

I know my aunt and uncle brought back 20 bottles of Okanagan cider, the airline charged them 30$ for the weight of their suit cases hehehe

yeah you can't bring any foreign food whether from the US or up here in Canada to either place (us > Canada, Canada > us) I remember being at Pearson Airport (Toronto International) and someone didn't declare their bag full of turkish delight from his grandfather (he just came back form Turkey) they found the bag just full of beetles. So not only did he have to throw away his sweets he was also busted for not declaring it and some other charge (can't remember) had to pay over a 1,000 bucks for duty and fines!