Location: Ottawa (where Torontonians go to watch NHL-calibre hockey, but where Montrealers go to get sleep)
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Copyright board sets music download royalities
Anyone know how this will work, or even under what authority someone is allowed to add this tax to music purchases?: Copyright board sets royalities for music downloads
"Downloading music may be getting more expensive.
In a landmark move that sets a standard for royalties owed to songwriters, the Canadian Copyright Board on Friday approved a tariff for online music services.
The federal agency ruled that in the case of permanent downloads, 7.9 per cent of the price of a song must go back to copyright holders. ..."
Please see: http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/...eb38ab&k=17560
Will we see the tax tacked on to our credit cards for iTunes purchases?
I don't understand this. Doesn't the artist get a precentage of the price of a music download? If so, what is this extra tariff for? Is it like the tariff on recording media?
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"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar." ~Bradley Millar
#2 - its a ruling that sets the % level of royalty rate for downloaded material -- just like the standard royalty rate that already exists on CDs and LPs.
Think "minimum wage" -- the government doesn't collect it, they set what the legal minimum rate is that two parties have to transact between them.
#3 - I can't tell from the article, but I assume that iTMS and the other commercial services have already negotiated and are paying similar royalty rates through their contracts with the copyright holders. I don't see how this ruling changes that at all.
What the Puretracks guy is saying in the article is not "this will raise prices", but "This will limit how low prices can go". Yes - of course.
#4 - This eliminates (in Canada at least) the potential of a AllOfMP3.ru loophole, where the seller claims that they are legal because royalties ARE being collected -- just at some absurdly low rate.
"7.9 per cent of the price of a song must go back to copyright holders."
I repeat -- Not A Tax.
Location: Ottawa (where Torontonians go to watch NHL-calibre hockey, but where Montrealers go to get sleep)
Posts: 3,436
Quote:
Originally Posted by CanadaRAM
#1 - It's not a tax. It is a royalty tariff rate....
From the dictionary:
Tax [taks]
Noun
A compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income and business profits or added to the costs of some goods, services, and transactions...
From Wikipedia:
...A tax may be defined as a "pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property to support the government [ . . .] a payment exacted by legislative authority."[1] A tax "is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority" and is "any contribution imposed by government [ . . .] whether under the name of toll, tribute, tallage, gabel, impost, duty, custom, excise, subsidy, aid, supply, or other name."...
It's a tax.
And I have to agree with Vexel about piracy.
I saw a lot of compelling arguments that said since we pay the tariff (tax) on recording media, we have paid for the right to use the copyrighted material in any way we see fit, including copying it and distributing it. Won't this "tariff" just encourage the same mindset?
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"Teaching a child not to step on a caterpillar is as valuable to the child as it is to the caterpillar." ~Bradley Millar
Last edited by SoyMac; Mar 17th, 2007 at 05:47 PM.
From the dictionary:
Tax [taks]
Noun
A compulsory contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income and business profits or added to the costs of some goods, services, and transactions...
From Wikipedia:
...A tax may be defined as a "pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property to support the government [ . . .] a payment exacted by legislative authority."[1] A tax "is not a voluntary payment or donation, but an enforced contribution, exacted pursuant to legislative authority" and is "any contribution imposed by government [ . . .] whether under the name of toll, tribute, tallage, gabel, impost, duty, custom, excise, subsidy, aid, supply, or other name."...
It's a tax.
The royalty tariff rate is a % rate that is legislated to ensure fair payment from one party (the seller of the recording) to another party (the collective society on behalf of the copyright owners of the recording) for the right to distribute.
The money does not go into state revenue (definition 1), it goes to the society who collects royalties on behalf of the owners
It is not supporting the government (definition 2)
It is not assessed upon the individual consumer as an additional cost to their transaction.
It. Is. Not. A. Tax. - any more than the wage your supermarket pays its employees for their labour (which is subject to legislated minimum hourly rates and benefit provisions) is a tax to you the consumer.
CSI is the corporation founded by the two primary Canadian recording rights collectives CMRRA and SODRAC, to administer the collection and distribution of royalties. Up til now there has been no legislative framework for assessing online download and streaming royalties, as there is for music sold on CD or LP, and broadcast on radio.
"[18] CSI has entered into licencing agreements
with all the online services currently operating in
Canada as well as a number of those who are
contemplating to do so. CSI requires a tariff
because the agreements only provide for interim
payments. The final royalties are to be set by the
Board, in the tariff."
CSI has ALREADY BEEN COLLECTING royalties on an estimated rate for the copyright holders from all Canadian online music sellers including Apple. This royalty tariff decision simply makes formal what the rate calculations are.
Thats all.
(You did get the bit about there being a legislated royalty tariff rate already in place on the production of CDs, LPs and music broadcasts?)
Vexel: this is not a tax on your purchase of the music, it is the amount that the seller pays to the creator for the right to reproduce and sell the music.
Last edited by CanadaRAM; Mar 18th, 2007 at 02:53 PM.
Anyone know how this will work, or even under what authority someone is allowed to add this tax to music purchases?:
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