[kwlug-disc] Yesterday in C-32 news

[Bob Jonkman]

On 10-11-04 06:45 PM, Chris Irwin wrote:
> On Thu, 2010-11-04 at 16:31 -0400, Paul Nijjar wrote:
>> On Thu, Nov 04, 2010 at 11:26:41AM -0400, Insurance Squared Inc. wrote:
>>> It's worth noting again that as I understand it, downloading music in
>>> Canada is perfectly legit as long as you do it for your self.  Uploading
>>> is a no-no, but downloading is fine.
>>>
>>> Thank our hidden media tax for that.
>> Our hidden media tax only applies if you burn the music to media. It
>> does not apply when you put that music on your iPod or on your
>> computer. Charlie Angus wants to extend the levy to these devices
>> (which kind of does not make sense since these are devices that can
>> store thousands of songs, be erased and used again) but that does not
>> exist right now.
> Makes me realize that for me, and I imagine a few others on this list,
> frequent Linux distro upgrades have been indirectly subsidizing the
> music industry for years.

A truly sad irony I learnt of this week:  An artist who has chosen to be 
independent, so as not to feed the Corporate Media wolf, distributes her 
work on CD - for which she pays the CD levy, which is distributed to 
Corporate Media, not to independent artists like herself.  That's a 
double insult, and she loses $ twice.

Yes, it is possible to request a refund of the CD levy (at least if CDs 
are purchased for data use), but I don't know of anyone who has ever 
done so.


> I find the levy to be cumbersome to understand in context of modern data
> storage. What if I burn it to CD *and* put it on my portable player?
> What if I buy one levy-laden blank disc for each 74-minutes worth of
> music, but don't burn it? What about if I buy one levy-laden blank disc
> for each 700MB of music...

We had this discussion in 2003.  No authoritative answers to those 
questions then either.

> On Sat, 8 Mar 2003, Bob Jonkman wrote:
>
>> >  -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> >  
>> >  Can someone comment on the validity of the statements below?  I find
>> >  all this very confusing, if amusing... (not to mention disgusting)
>> >  
>> >  1) As I understand it, if you purchase a music CD, then loan it to
>> >  me, I can make a copy on a blank CD I've purchased in Canada, since
>> >  I've paid the levy to reimburse the music industry.
> AFAIK, this is true.
>> >  
>> >  2) However, it is not legal for you to make a copy of your music CD
>> >  on a blank CD you've purchased in Canada, then give that copy to me
>> >  (even though the music industry has been equally compensated
>> >  compared to 1)
> yup.  confusing, isn't it?
>
>> >  3) As a corollary to 1), it is legal when you purchase a music CD,
>> >  then rip it to OGG format and lend the file to me, and I burn that
>> >  OGG file on a CD I've purchased in Canada (since the music industry
>> >  is being compensated via the levy on my CD)
>> >  
>> >  4) As a variation on 3), it is legal when you purchase a music CD,
>> >  rip it to OGG format, make the file available on Gnutella, then I
>> >  download the file and burn it on a blank CD I've purchased in
>> >  Canada.
>> >  
>> >  5) By extension, it is legal for me to download any music from
>> >  Gnutella and burn to a blank CD I've purchased in Canada...
>> >  
>> >  6) ...but is it legal for me to download any music from Gnutella and
>> >  just listen to it without burning it to blank CD I've purchased in
>> >  Canada?
>> >  
>> >  7) What if I just purchase a spindle of blank CDs in Canada in order
>> >  to pay the levy for the music I download from Gnutella, but don't
>> >  actually bother burning any of it to those blank CDs?
>> >  
>> >  
>> >  This is so screwed up...
> i'm not even going to*try*  to think about the rest of this, since
> at this point, i still haven't figured out the subtleties.
>
> but i*did*  realize from a recent posting that it makes no sense
> to me at all that either the government or the private levy
> consortium had the authority to pass this law in the first place.
>
> who exactly gave the canadian copyright board to say, "well, sure,
> all that music's copyrighted, but we're just going to ignore those
> copyrights, let people make copies, collect a levy and (somehow,
> magically) reimburse the musicians".
>
> did sony music have a say in this?  arista records?  the other
> recording companies?  if they didn't give their permission for
> this, it doesn't matter*what*  the canadian copyright boards
> thinks.
>
> yup ... this is so screwed up.
>
> rday
>