End The Copyright Levy

Text of the Policy
 We will seek to abolish the copyright levy

Rationales

 * Blank CDs and DVDs represent an important tool for new artists to sell their music at concerts and events. However they, along with the general public, are charged 29 cents for each CD-R or CD-RW. This money is divided among major artists based on sales, not actual levels of piracy. As a result new artists just starting out are both unfairly taxed and denied access to funds from the levy. We believe this is both structurally unfair to new artists and a cash grab by the major labels.

Snippet of Discussions

 * A member voiced support for '(copyright) abolition with extreme prejudice'.
 * Discussion on the levy and copyright case:
 * A judge's decision, many years ago, cited that the CRIA (I believe it was them) couldn't sue users for copyright infringement for downloading MP3s because the levy already was in place to take care of that.
 * Since we intend to make non-commercial file sharing legal it makes little sense to retain a 'you must be a pirate' tax.

Possible Misinformations
Myth: "Copies have value, if they didn’t have value people wouldn’t make them." (Page advocates levies on MP3 players. Retrieved: Jan 1, 2015)

Fact:
 * The difficulty with a levy on blank media is that the manufacturer has no idea how exactly that media is going to be used. For example, the levy administrated by the CPCC covers only musical works and not video, software, 3D models or other works.
 * Many MP3 players (such as the iPod) have now evolved into full-blown PDAs. They allow you to play games, take photos, and browse the web. It is no longer reasonable to assume that the majority of the space on an MP3 player (which may include cell-phones) will be devoted to storing "pirated" music.

Related News or Articles
Canada Gazette, Part I August 31, 2013 Tariff of Levies

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