Canada won't impose fee on microSD cards

[cybercoma]

Canada will exempt certain memory cards from a levy charged to consumers to compensate copyright holders, Industry Minister Christian Paradis said, denying an industry group’s request.

Read the rest here: http://business.financialpost.com/2012/07/03/canada-wont-impose-copyright-fees-on-memory-drives-paradis/

The Conservatives made an excellent decision here not to bow to industry pressure to levy a copyright fee on microSD cards. I don't know anyone that uses them to pirate anyway. The only time I've ever used a microSD card was in an old cellphone and I'm sure some digital cameras probably use it. Now large portable hard drives (1TB+) are probably being used to store pirated movies and music by people that use torrents. If they're going to levy a fee on a particular product those would be the ones to do it to. Forget that though. The industry is just pressuring the government to subsidize them for not being able to keep up with technological changes and advances. People that use these products for legitimate purposes should not be faced with paying a fine because some people use them illegally. That's like charging an extra $0.10 for each sheet of printer paper you buy because people sometimes photocopy things illegally. To quote our friend Shady, these fees are "complete nonsense."

[Boges]

I read awhile back that content providers wanted surcharges applied to people's internet bills. That would make sense.

I know people that don't even pay for cable anymore, they just download bitorrents.

I like the convenience of having HD programming available onDemand, it's worth the money to me.

I don't buy music anymore but I do stream internet radio and subscribe to XM radio so I do support artists indirectly.

[xul]

It seems like our dear writers, singers....lol....probably the CEOs and lawyers of this "industry" are out of touch with the rest part of the real world.

I have a Canon HD camcorder but the original 4GB SD card is too small to record 1920x1080p video, so I just bought a 16GB microSD card with a SD adapter instead(the store only had this type, probably the manager thought that using single type of merchandise to cater two kinds of consumer's need was a good idea). How on earth my purchase related with the business of this industry?

Most recently produced mini cameras and camcorders directly using microSD cards instead of SD or CF cards.....perhaps the CEOs of Sony Canada, Canon Canada, Nikon Canada....donate to conservative politicians more generously than The Canadian Private Copying Collective

[Wild Bill]

This is a carryover from the days of the cassette tape! We can all thank Sheila Copps for this.

Back then the record labels were complaining about people transferring their vinyl albums onto cassette tape, then making extra copies for friends or supposedly for sale. They petitioned the Feds and Sheila Copps became their champion. Every blank cassette had an extra 25 cents added to the price.

The money was supposedly for artists who were losing royalty money, we were told. Now, I am very close to such musicians in my career and in all these years I have yet to meet one who every received even a dime!

The cassette gave way to the CD and then the DVD. The extra charge just followed along. Now the SD is the target.

For the amount of actual piracy it always seemed a sledgehammer to kill a fly approach. Also, many people resented having to pay extra just to put something they had already paid for, like an LP, onto a different media. What's more, many people used cassettes and later CDs for things that had nothing to do with music, such as taking notes or dictation or for data recording.

It's not as if the record labels are in the forefront of new artist discovery and career advancement anyway! This ripoff charge should go the way of the one for the plastic bags in Toronto.

[bush_cheney2004]

...The cassette gave way to the CD and then the DVD. The extra charge just followed along. Now the SD is the target.

Cassette? CD? DVD? SD? All crap....get one of these instead...like me! No steenkin taxes either.

[Wild Bill]

Cassette? CD? DVD? SD? All crap....get one of these instead...like me! No steenkin taxes either.

Got a couple, BC. A Sanyo for workaday applications and a late 50's Roberts that weighs a ton for serious stuff!

[Moonbox]

For the amount of actual piracy it always seemed a sledgehammer to kill a fly approach.

It's probably the other way around actually. A small fee on devices like that would be completely irrelevant compared to the amount of piracy going on. Almost nobody in the 10-35 year old age bracket actually buys DVD's or CD's anymore. They don't purchase from iTunes either. It's more common than not that someone in this demographic would hold a library of thousands of songs downloaded from the internet.

It's not as if the record labels are in the forefront of new artist discovery and career advancement anyway! This ripoff charge should go the way of the one for the plastic bags in Toronto.

That's really the gist of it. The record companies are no longer required/wanted for the distribution of music. Beyond (usually) bad music videos, they provide no value to the industry and they'll slowly disappear. Concerts, merchandise and endorsements are how musicians will get rich now.

[dre]

I read awhile back that content providers wanted surcharges applied to people's internet bills. That would make sense.

No that makes no sense at all, and its a horrible direction to go in. Can stolen materials be moved around on the internet? Sure... So what??? They can be moved around in cars, planes, trains, and boats as well. Does that mean people who use all those things should pay money to people who have stuff stolen?

How about people who use a highway? Should they have to have to make whole the unjured party when the highway is used to transport stolen goods?

[Boges]

No that makes no sense at all, and its a horrible direction to go in. Can stolen materials be moved around on the internet? Sure... So what??? They can be moved around in cars, planes, trains, and boats as well. Does that mean people who use all those things should pay money to people who have stuff stolen?

How about people who use a highway? Should they have to have to make whole the unjured party when the highway is used to transport stolen goods?

I said it made sense, didn't say it was right. Piracy of this kind is only possible because of the internet.

I wouldn't agree with a surcharge because it's forcing you to pay for something you may or may not use. Ultimately people who create good content find a way to get paid.

Great TV shows and movies are still being made despite the internet.

The Netflix model is probably what we'll see in the future for entertainment. A flat fee for as much content as you want.

Edited July 9, 2012 by Boges

[Wilber]

No that makes no sense at all, and its a horrible direction to go in. Can stolen materials be moved around on the internet? Sure... So what??? They can be moved around in cars, planes, trains, and boats as well. Does that mean people who use all those things should pay money to people who have stuff stolen?

How about people who use a highway? Should they have to have to make whole the unjured party when the highway is used to transport stolen goods?

Possession of stolen goods is illegal. You would make it legal just because it is done on the Internet?