Singing with a choir has many benefits.
See this article.
In Canada, if you buy a blank CD, it is presumed that you are going to steal music. A levy of 21 cents is added to every blank CD purchased and 24 cents for every blank cassette more than 40 minutes in length. These funds are distributed to the music industry.
Proposed legislation will compound this: the Canadian Private Copying Collective, a non-profit agency created by the music industry wants to collect up to $75 for each MP3 player sold, and 29 cents for every blank CD and Mini disc. Futher all memory sticks would be tariffed, up to $10 per card. Details here. Looking at the financial report, the motivation may be the drop in revenue from CD tariffs since 2004, probably the result of the use of alternative media. It’d be interesting to see how these revenue numbers might jump with the proposed tariffs.
Canadian music industry proponents would argue the funds will go towards fostering Canadian artists and music. Futher artists don’t have the protection against file sharing that they do in the US: we have no equivalent to the Digital Millenium Act.
Personally I purchase all music (and software) I download or copy. So the presumption that I am stealing music and must be penalized is at best disappointing, at worst, theft. I want my support of Canadian artists to be by choice, not legislation. It makes a lot more sense to me to modify our copyright laws to protect against people who steal music, than to penalize all music lovers. How this legislation will deter thieves is not clear. You can contact your Member of Parliament if you agree.
