Canada increases its ‘you are a digital criminal’ tax

Here in Canada we have the pleasure of paying some of the highest prices for blank CDs due to the fact that it is thought that anyone using blank CD is automatically a copyright breaking criminal. This is the same idea that was a popular believe back when cassettes were all the rage. The belief was; and heavily promoted by the recording industry – then and now – that there is no reason why anyone would want to use blank CDS other than to pirate music.

This resulted in a 21 cent tax being levied per blank CD which before any other of our famous taxes being applied cost the consumer $11.99 per 50 pack of blanks – without cases. Now that is pretty well the cheapest price with it ranging upward from there depending on the store. Don’t expect that price if you’re shopping in a brick and mortar retailer.

The increase of 8 cents to 29 cents levy on each blank CD-R is being justified by the Copyright Board of Canada because of the increasing usage of compression which allows for more stuff to be recorded on CDs. The interesting thing is that this digital criminal tax isn’t being applied to blank DVD even though they hold more data. This has resulted in CDs being more expensive to buy than blank DVD.

This tax levy amounts to about $30 million per year which is then handed right over to the music industry with a wink and a nod that the musicians will see any of the money.