Last summer, music industry officials, retailers and consumers all debated the merits of the Copyright Board of Canada's tentative decision to place a levy on iPod's and other MP3 players – a tariff that depending on the amount of internal memory could be worth up to $75 per device.
On Thursday, that levy was effectively killed by the Federal Court of Appeal, says copyright lawyer Howard Knopf. Although the decision can still be appealed, Mr. Knopf, who representated the Retail Council of Canada as well as Apple Canada et. al, says that the court took only 24 hours to decide the Copyright Board had no legal authority to certify a levy.
"The Applicants were awarded their costs. The reasons are very brief. The Court was very decisive," Mr. Knopf said.
Not surprisingly, the ruling was welcomed by Retail Council of Canada president Diane J. Brisebois.
"This has been a very long battle, but a necessary one," said Ms. Brisebois in a prepared statement. "Retailers have fought against these levies since their creation in 1997 because it taxes a product based on what a consumer possibly could use it for."
While the decision may be regarded is a victory for consumers, the fight may not yet be over. Noted copyright crusader Michael Geist writes in a blog post that the court's decision still leaves millions of Canadians that own an iPod in legal limbo.
"Canadians who copy music from their CDs to their iPods are not covered by the exception and thus arguably infringe copyright," wrote Mr. Geist. "The issue therefore moves from the Federal Court of Appeal to Industry Minister Jim Prentice who must decide whether he amend the law by creating a clear, uncompensated exception to format shift..."
Depending on what Mr. Prentice decide to do, his decision may be looked at a precursor to what the updated Copyright Act may look like. Side with the FCA's ruling, and many would expect the tabled bill to be consumer-friendly; breathe new life into the levy, and one could assume Mr. Prentice will continue ahead with a DMCA-styled copyright legislation.
So, yeah, it is copyright infringe if i copy my music from my CD's to my iPod... righto...
