Tax Happy.

• Author: Taylor, Jeff A.
• Position: Taxation on recording media in Canada - Brief Article

What better way to make money than to have the taxman rake in your take?

The American recording industry starting pressing for that idea back in the '80s, declaring victory in October 1992, when President George Bush signed the Audio Home Recording Act. That law taxes all digital audio recording devices at 2 percent of the wholesale price and all digital audio recording media at 3 percent of the wholesale price. The money is then routed back to the Register of Copyrights and Librarian of Congress to be disbursed to representatives of the recording industry for an artists' fund.

Now officials at the Copyright Board of Canada have taken the idea a step further, slapping a tax on all recording media, analog and digital] alike. The estimated $9 million take will then be sent to Canada's Heritage Ministry to support "uniquely" Canadian artists, composers, and...