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Canada Up to 25% tariff on music downloads |
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Saturday, 23 April 2005 |
Canada Up to 25% tariff on music downloads
Michael Geist Law
Professor University of Ottawa
THE REAL THREAT TO THE MUSIC DOWNLOAD MARKET
The Canadian Recording Industry Association’s (CRIA) legal campaign against
music file sharing heads back to court later this week. A three judge panel will
hear an appeal of last spring’s decision that denied a request for identifying
information on 29 alleged file sharers due to insufficient evidence, privacy
concerns, and doubts about proof of infringement under Canadian copyright law.
CRIA is likely to use the hearing to again argue that peer-to-peer file sharing
is hurting Canadian artists and the industry, which at long last is seeking to
develop fee-based alternatives such as Apple iTunes, Napster, and Puretracks.
Despite all the rhetoric, there remains much doubt about whether peer-to-peer is
really responsible for declining sales. The industry’s own numbers suggest
otherwise since the popularity of DVDs, changes in the retail distribution of
music, and reduced retail pricing on CDs have all played significant roles in
the industry’s self-proclaimed woes (which themselves are not so woeful with
sales increasing by more than 10 percent in the six months following the federal
court decision last year).
Moreover, there is little doubt that Canadian artists’ royalty losses have been
offset by the private copying levy system. The Canadian Private Copying
Collective has collected approximately $120 million over the past five years
with much of that revenue earmarked for Canadian artists.
While CRIA has argued that the private copying levy was not intended to cover
music downloading those claims ring hollow in light of recent statements and
collection practices. Last month, the industry acknowledged to the U.S. Supreme
Court that users have the right to copy their CDs in order to listen to the same
songs on devices such as the Apple iPod. Given that $30 million was collected
from Canadians last year, it must surely have been paid for something other than
activities already permitted under the law.
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