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Copyright Collective to seek Levy on MP3 players from Supreme Court
The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) announced on January 13, 2005 that it will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada a decision by the Federal Court of Appeal holding that levies on MP3 Digital Music Players, including the popular Apple IPod, exceeded the Copyrigt Board's jurisdiction under the Copyright Act. The CPCC had been collecting levies on iPods and similar gadgets based on the embedded memory of such gadgets for more than a year through a levy built into the price of the players. The levies were as follows: $2 for non-removable capacity of up to 1 GB, $15 for 1 to 10 GBs and $25 for more than 10 GBs. These levies were imposed by analogy to the CPCC's power under the Copyright Act to apply levies on blank media such as compact discs and audio cassettes.
Judge Noel of the Federal Court of Appeal stated in the December 2004 decision that "as desirable as bringing such devices within the ambit of [the Act] might seem, the authority for doing so still has to be found in the Act." The Court concluded that the Copyright Act did not cover these new technologies.
The CPCC intends to appeal the Federal Court of Appeal's ruling on the basis that the Court erred in deciding that the Copyright Board did not have jurisdiction to impose such a levy. Claudette Fortier of the CPCC argued "creators of recorded music deserve remuneration for the use of their work. It is our responsibility to uphold that principle even when new developments and technologies change the ways in which Canadians make private copies of music."
For additional information, visit:
http://www.eureka.cc/Mainsite/Search/PrintAndSave.asp?/Action=PrintDoc
https://secure.workopolis.com/servlet/Content/qprinter/20050114/NOTE14-2
http://decisions.fca-caf.gc.ca/fca/2004/2004fca424.shtml