“Canadians may soon pay a small tax on every legal music store download, says a new measure sanctioned by the Copyright Board of Canada. Requested by the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN), the tax would apply at least 2.1 cents to every individual song download and 1.5 cents per track for complete albums. Subscription download and streaming services would themselves be charged between 5.7 and 6.8 percent of a user’s monthly fees. Minimum fees would also apply for every larger download or subscription,” MacNN reports.
“The surcharge would help compensate artists for piracy, according to SOCAN’s reasoning. The publishing group draws similarities between this and a 21-cent fee already applied to blank CDs in the country; the right to copy a song from an online store demands the same sort of levy applied to copying a retail CD, SOCAN argues,” MacNN reports.
“The tax may have a significant impact for online stores such as iTunes and Canada-based Puretracks, which will have to factor the amount both into future and past sales. The new tax would be retroactive to January 1st, 1996,” MacNN reports.
More in the full article, including links, here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hosers, eh?
Canadian taxes not high enough yet?
This is F****ING STUPID.
If people are buying the songs off iTunes, they’re NOT PIRATING.
This is making the honest pay for the cheap P2Pers.
Idiots.
Oh Phillip?
Yes Terrance.
Why do us Canadians who play by the rules have to pay for those who break the rules?
Sort of encourages the honest people to steal doesn’t it Terrance?
Let’s go tell the Prime Minister about this injustice.
How will we get there Terrance?
The fart mobile of course Philip!
Yay for us. Boo.
I still find it ironic how some people justify illegal downloading because of the fee paid on recordable media. That just doesn’t add up in my brain.
A big F**k You SOCAN!
So I chose to buy my digital download – with DRM must I insist – and now I’ll have to pay a tax on these because of those who don’t? What? This tax is retroactive to 1996? This is a joke isn’t it? You want me to go back to Limewire or what?
OK so punish the people that actually purchase the music, WTF :-(, when will these frigtards get a clue?
This is BS. As if we are not already hampered enough by the CRTC now SOCAN wants to push their weight around? Utterly stupid as it’ll drive people to pirate if you charge legitimate buyers a tax for their music.
as a starving socan member i approve.
What is the big deal? iTunes charges sales tax on downloaded content.
That sucks, eh!
What Hosers!