No iPod Tax In Canada

If you've been keeping tabs on the iPod Tax situation, you'll be glad to hear that the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal has turned it down. The Copyright Board of Canada proposed last summer that Canadians should pay an extra tax for digital music players and memory cards to compensate artists. The proposed amounts were $5 per memory card between 1gb to 4gb in size and $75 per music player with 30gb+ of space.

In its ruling, the Federal Court of Appeal found that "the Copyright Board erred in law when it concluded that it has the legal authority to certify the tariff that the Canadian Private Copyright Collective has proposed for 2008 and 2009 on digital audio recorders." The ruling echoes a similar finding in 2004, which also quashed an attempt to put levies on "digital audio recorders."

Before we go jumping up and down over the ruling, note that it leaves some questions unanswered, one of which is that it leaves the legality of ripping music unclear in Canada. You can read more about that, along with the decision itself, by clicking on the source link.

Source: Ars Technica

TAGS: Canada, Copyright, Digital Audio Player, Ipod
POST TOOLS: