An "interest group" put together by the record
companies in Canada, calling themselves the "Canadian Private
Copying Collective" has lobbied the Canadian government, saying that
the use of recording media in Canada to make copies of commercial music
is eating into their profits, and therefore recording media should have
an extra levy (aka tax) put on them, payable directly to the record
companies, to compensate them.
This HAS been approved, and IS going to go through unless people start
writing to complain. This will add the following costs to EVERY SINGLE
media you purchase:
Audio Cassettes (40 minutes or more in length): 29� per tape
CD-R or CD-RW: 21� per disc
CD-R Audio, CD-RW Audio or MiniDisc: 77� per disc
Here are the addresses of the people you need to write to. Do it
today!
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Here is the email I wrote:
I am vehemently opposed to this new, unjustified tax on blank recording
media. Nothing more than a grab at more cash by record companies who are
feeling the squeeze of realistic market conditions after years of living
like fat cats on ridiculous profits, this ill-thought-out tax will damage
most those whom it is not aimed at.
I myself use copious amounts of blank Minidiscs and CD-R media. I use
Minidiscs for recording my own music. I use upwards of two thousand CD-R
discs per year in my business, every one of which contains computer data,
not music, and certainly not copyrighted music.
I also happen to own several thousand vinyl records and CDs. I have paid
for those records and CDs at the time of their purchase. In doing so, I
have paid the record companies, and in turn, supported the artists who
created them. Paying another tax on blank media used to store business
data, to support those artists once again, is nothing short of
extortion.
The proposed tax imposed by the Canadian Private Copying Collective will
do nothing but cause an underground market in imported recording media,
while extorting money from the rest of us law-abiding
Canadians.
Take this levy (tax) and shove it back from whence it came, where it
deserves to go. We're Canadians, and we sure as hell don't need another
tax, particularly one to feed the coffers of fat-bottomed record
companies. If they are feeling a squeeze, let them figure out a viable
business solution to the problem, not by taking the cop-out route of
taxing law-abiding Canadians yet again.
Then again, punishing the many for the sins of a few seems to be the
Canadian way.
_______________________
Scott MacLean
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
ICQ: 9184011
http://www.nerosoft.com
