The long running debate in Canada over the pros and cons of the so called iPod tax is back in the news this week after the country's Copyright Board formally announced its support for the system.
As much previously reported, the iPod tax is the system where a levy is charged on any digital music player sold, the monies from which are either passed onto to royalty collection bodies for the music industry or used to fund music education initiatives. The idea behind the system is that by paying the levy consumers are being given the right to make private copies of music on the player - ie transferring music from CDs they bought onto the player, something that is, in theory, not allowed by the licence that comes with the CD itself. The system is a digital extension of one adopted in a number of countries (though not the UK) where a similar levy is charged on cassettes and CDRs, for the same private copying reasons.
Although some in the music industry have lobbied for the iPod tax, especially in countries where a levy is already charged on cassettes and CDRs, it is not without controversy. Consumer rights groups argue that the system penalises consumers who only put music onto their digital music players that have been downloaded from legitimate digital music platforms like iTunes, music that is intended by the seller and content owners for use on such a player. The tax is even more controversial when, as some have proposed, it is applied to mobile phones that come with an inbuilt music player, with some consumer rights groups arguing many owners of those phones won't even use the music player component.
The Canada Private Copyright Collective first pushed for the introduction of an iPod tax in 2003, but were blocked by the courts who said current copyright laws didn't provide for such a system. But the CPCC continued its lobbying, arguing that digital music players are in essence 'recorded media', like CDRs and cassettes, and should therefore fall under existing levy rules that cover the sale of CDRs and cassettes. This week the Copyright Board Of Canada said in a statement: "We see no inherent problem with this scenario [the iPod tax]. A thing that is ordinarily used by individual consumers to make private copies should not be excluded from the private copying regime for the sole reason that it has other uses".
However, the electronics and retail lobby, who successfully stopped attempts to introduce the levy in 2003, will surely mount considerable opposition to any new attempts to introduce an iPod tax now.