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All good Canadians in the know should know what I'm talking about. In '99 a levy was put in place on CD-R and audio cassettes with the intention that the levy would be used to reimburse the music artists for piracy. I didn't actually find out about the levy until after it had already gone into place, so that was my bad. Now they're proposing an increase. I sent in my objection and signed the petition against it, although I doubt it'll do any good. My rant, though, is not with the levy, but what it's being included on. Namely DVD-R. What the <dangerous explicitive> is up with that?
If any of the monies were going to support movie piracy, then maybe I could understand. I'd still be opposed, but at least I'd get where they were coming from. But it's not, it's all being distributed to the music industry. Actually, to the best of my knowledge, not a penny has been distributed from the levy since it was put in place. The CPCC's just been collecting it all.
Back to the DVD-R. Does it make ANY sense to use a $20 disc where 7 $1.50 discs will do, especially when the $20 disc is only good for home use? How many portable music DVD players have you seen? "I'm going to spend an extra $10 just so I don't have to get off my lazy ass to change CDs every 10 hours"
But wait, I've got another rant. Minidiscs. You know what I use minidiscs for? I created a 5 minute video clip which I converted to VCD and send to companies as a kind of digital resume. Now, I don't go through a lot, and apparently no one else does either, because my supplier just stopped carrying them. A quick look on the internet to see if I could find another nearby supplier revealed that minidiscs were being included as audio CDs. All this time I thought I was paying $0.21 levy on them when I was actually paying $0.77. No wonder they were so much more then a regular CD. How many people out there still use minidiscs for audio? If you are, move into the 21st century and get an MP3 disc player, and stop raising the price of my minidiscs.
Actually, here's another bugger for you. When a CD Costs $0.30, and there's a $0.21 levy on it, that means without the levy, it only costs $0.09. 70% of the cost is the levy, which, by the way, is also taxable. I don't buy audio CDs (other then minidiscs, @#$%) so I couldn't tell you how ripped off you're getting. At least, if the new levy goes through (and may God have mercy on us all if it does) it's only $2.27 for a DVD-R, just over 10% of the cost.
And one more, so long as I'm fuming. They say of the final $20 pricetag, $1.50 from each music disc goes to the artists (songwriter, singer, producer) so that's what they intend to get back from the levy ($1.50 per 'disc' of copied music) which I can understand. But watch this. One GB of micro hard drive = 1100 minutes of MP3 audio (bit rate depending) or enough for 15 CDs. That's $22.50 @ $1.50 per disc. That assumes that every micro hard drive is used for MP3. They aren't, not by a long shot. (They're actually only asking $21 on the levy but whatever) How many DV camcorders out there use mHD? What about those personal VCR things (I've seen satelite systems with them), that let you pause live TV? Some boast they can record up to 30 hours video. I have no idea what size of hard drive that must be, but you can bet it'd be fairly large, at least 15 gigs. Suddenly something which costs $299 now costs $614, and that is just going to KILL sales.
One more thing, the exemptions they're allowing are stupid! They're only giving exemptions on audio CD-Rs. Mostly those that seek exemption want them for data, not audio. And the fact that you need to buy from participating importers? Isn't that kind of monopolizing on the industry? Sure, maybe I could get my $1.50 discs for only $1.00, but if the levy weren't in place, I could get then $0.73, right?
Ok, I'm done now and feeling moderately better.
If any of the monies were going to support movie piracy, then maybe I could understand. I'd still be opposed, but at least I'd get where they were coming from. But it's not, it's all being distributed to the music industry. Actually, to the best of my knowledge, not a penny has been distributed from the levy since it was put in place. The CPCC's just been collecting it all.
Back to the DVD-R. Does it make ANY sense to use a $20 disc where 7 $1.50 discs will do, especially when the $20 disc is only good for home use? How many portable music DVD players have you seen? "I'm going to spend an extra $10 just so I don't have to get off my lazy ass to change CDs every 10 hours"
But wait, I've got another rant. Minidiscs. You know what I use minidiscs for? I created a 5 minute video clip which I converted to VCD and send to companies as a kind of digital resume. Now, I don't go through a lot, and apparently no one else does either, because my supplier just stopped carrying them. A quick look on the internet to see if I could find another nearby supplier revealed that minidiscs were being included as audio CDs. All this time I thought I was paying $0.21 levy on them when I was actually paying $0.77. No wonder they were so much more then a regular CD. How many people out there still use minidiscs for audio? If you are, move into the 21st century and get an MP3 disc player, and stop raising the price of my minidiscs.
Actually, here's another bugger for you. When a CD Costs $0.30, and there's a $0.21 levy on it, that means without the levy, it only costs $0.09. 70% of the cost is the levy, which, by the way, is also taxable. I don't buy audio CDs (other then minidiscs, @#$%) so I couldn't tell you how ripped off you're getting. At least, if the new levy goes through (and may God have mercy on us all if it does) it's only $2.27 for a DVD-R, just over 10% of the cost.
And one more, so long as I'm fuming. They say of the final $20 pricetag, $1.50 from each music disc goes to the artists (songwriter, singer, producer) so that's what they intend to get back from the levy ($1.50 per 'disc' of copied music) which I can understand. But watch this. One GB of micro hard drive = 1100 minutes of MP3 audio (bit rate depending) or enough for 15 CDs. That's $22.50 @ $1.50 per disc. That assumes that every micro hard drive is used for MP3. They aren't, not by a long shot. (They're actually only asking $21 on the levy but whatever) How many DV camcorders out there use mHD? What about those personal VCR things (I've seen satelite systems with them), that let you pause live TV? Some boast they can record up to 30 hours video. I have no idea what size of hard drive that must be, but you can bet it'd be fairly large, at least 15 gigs. Suddenly something which costs $299 now costs $614, and that is just going to KILL sales.
One more thing, the exemptions they're allowing are stupid! They're only giving exemptions on audio CD-Rs. Mostly those that seek exemption want them for data, not audio. And the fact that you need to buy from participating importers? Isn't that kind of monopolizing on the industry? Sure, maybe I could get my $1.50 discs for only $1.00, but if the levy weren't in place, I could get then $0.73, right?
Ok, I'm done now and feeling moderately better.
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