The Canadian Copyright Board is causing a stir when it announced that it has ruled that it will begin implementing taxation on music downloads from online sources. The board enacted the rule after the SOCAN (equivalent to the RIAA) pushed for such due to the increasing trade in pirated music. The board has already defied world economics when it ruled that the sale of digital media players was to be taxed in order to make people more responsible with their use. If only such measures were easy to implement in America and elsewhere (which the RIAA and MPAA are finding to be very much difficult if not impossible.
The new rule has online music stores (which would surely be increasing prices) pay a tax of 3.1 cents for each individual track that is downloaded off their web sites. For full album purchases a 1.5 cent tax is placed on ever song which would surely hurt the music download industry which has been booming in spite of the many illegal sources out on the internet. Such drastic measures might be the only solution to curb piracy which is now a global problem that defies borders. From Europe to Asia, the piracy problem has been a thorn in the side of movie, music and governments fro quite sometime. Let’s give it for the Canadians for getting in the news with outrageous solutions to the piracy problem.