iPod Surcharge in Canada? No Way, Eh

January 12, 2008

In Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal (Interesting that they don't use Appeals," as we Yanks do) has ruled out a Copyright Board of Canada-proposed surcharge on iPods.

The surcharge would have been used to pay back the recording industry for copyright revenues presumably lost to illegal file traders.

The amount of the surcharge would have been $5 to $75 CDN on each iPod, depending on the capacity of each device.

Opponents criticized the surcharge as one that would unfairly penalize all iPod purchasers for the file-trading sins of some iPod users.

Adherents of the surcharge likened it to fees charged on blank DVDs and CDs. Now generally accepted, that practice has been in place largely to funnel revenue to copyright holding movie studios and record companies that feel some potential revenue has been lost to users who transfer digital files to those forms (DVDs and CDs)