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The convenient truth behind Canada’s MP3 player tax bill
| March 16, 2010
NDP copyright critic Charlie Angus has delivered a private member’s bill that would tax MP3 players and prolong users’ rights to make copies of digital content. If passed, the bill would add a small tax to devices that reproduce media, including MP3 players and computers. Currently, Canadians pay this tax on “blank media,” such as CDs and DVDs, with the money from the tax put in a fund for artists and record labels, meant as compensation for copying.
Angus, the MP for Timmins–James Bay, said in a press release that he wants to “ensure that artists are getting paid for their work, and that consumers aren’t criminalized for moving their legally obtained music from one format to another.” But we’ve dug deep (to the About Me section of Angus’ Web site) and unearthed the truth about the formation of the bill. Turns out, Angus is a northern Ontario rock superstar with two Juno nominations. Better known as Chuck in the music biz, he’s the co-founder of the folk-rock band Grievous Angels, which was named one of the country’s hottest up-and-coming bands by Maclean’s in 1994. Seems a bit fishy to us, Chuck.
• NDP’s Angus unveils copyright bill [CBC] • About Charlie [Charlieangus.net] • Grevious Angels [NME]
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