[Cdn-DMCA] Tariff 22 summary

[Chris Brand]

>Nit-picky stuff that if Private Copying was simply carved out would make
>Copyright just so much simpler to administrate.  Keep it to for-profit
>mass distribution/publishing and "keep out of the bedrooms of Canadians".

I think that this is a decent argument - if private copying of copyrighted
material was explicitly legal, copyright law would be much simpler to
administer and enforce.

The problem is that this argument has already been made - by the music industry.
That's how we ended up with the private copying levy. The second problem is
websites. If in the privacy of my own bedroom, I copy a CD I've bought to a
website accessible to anyone, is that still private copying ? (There's a very
good argument that it is, and that anyone downloading it is also copying it
privately, in the privacy of their own home, but the privilege holders will
cry "but we will only be able to sell one of any CD" and so I don't think it
will fly).

Personally, I think the private copying levy is worse than making
private copying illegal, because it judges everyone guilty without the benefit
of a trial, and it actually encourages a parasitical business model - the music
industry in Canada today could price all CDs at $200, not sell any, and still
make money from the levy. In fact, the sales of blank media would almost
certainly increase, so they'd make more money from the levy. The next time it
came up for renewal, they'd use the $200 base price and the greater percentage
of blank media used to record music to justify huge increases in the levy (just
read how they derive the numbers they're proposing this time around). The
result is a very nice business model - every time you increase your prices, you
sell less product, cutting manufacturing costs, but you make money for every
sale made in an unrelated industry.

Chris
--
For (un)subscription information, posting guidelines and
links to other related sites please see http://www.flora.org/dmca/