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Should Canada impose an iPod levy? Copyright experts debate issue
In a video round table discussion hosted by ITBusiness.ca, the idea of an iPod levy being used to collect money for Canadian musicians is debated. The idea is one that's been raised during the copyright consultation and some musician's groups are supporting. See how the arguments stack up in this first video in a three-part series.9/2/2009 6:00:00 AM By: Brian Jackson
Canadians are copying their private music collection on to their iPods and should pay a levy to compensate musicians properly for that act, according to a director at the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC).
See the other videos and articles in this series:
“We know through surveys there is an enormous amount of private copying,” says David Basskin, during a round table discussion hosted by ITBusiness.ca. “You survey, you determine the value, and you impose the levy.”
The CPCC has been collecting levies on recordable media sold in Canada since 2000. A 29 cent fee on each blank CD or minidisc, and a 24 cent fee on each cassette tape goes into the coffers of the collective. It is their responsibility to distribute that to compensate those who have worked on the music being copied.
“Since 2000, we've taken close to $230 million distributed something like $180 million,” Basskin says. “The levy has made an enormous difference in the lives and careers of the people who make music in this country.”
With the ongoing government copyright consultations, some musicians' groups (such as the American Federation of Musicians in Canada) have also raised the idea of extending the levy. In an age where CDs are falling out of popular use and being replaced by iPods and other mp3 players, it makes sense to update the law, they argue.
But others disagree.
Critics say the levy makes everyone pay the price whether they are copying music to the media or not. Questions have also been raised about how fairly collected funds are distributed, and whether Canadians are even sufficiently aware that such a levy exists and making a private copy is legal.
“I don't think there should be a levy,” says David Allsebrook, an intellectual property lawyer with Toronto-based Ludlow Law. “At present time, the people who own the copyrights are sort of sucking and blowing at the same time. They're cashing the royalty checks, whether or not someone makes a copy of their music and at the same time, putting copy protection in place.”
But no CDs on sale in Canada are currently protected by digital locks or technological protection measures (TPMs), Basskin retorts. Though they were experimented with for a brief time.
“It was a total market failure and the entire music industry, and the record companies in any event, have stepped back from those,” he says.
Still, Allsebrook added that if a levy were to be extended to other electronic storage devices such as iPods, the Copyright Act should also prohibit digital locks on music.
Page Navigation 1) "We know through surveys there is an enormous amount of private copying." - Page 12) A CPCC survey shows 70 to 80 per cent of iPod users do put their music collection onto the device. - Page 2
3) Copyright consultations have gone from "being a backroom process to one that the public can be involved in." - Page 3
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