Canadian Copying Collective Pushes Memory Card Tax!

Unable to convince legislators to extend levy to MP3 players, Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) has petitioned the Copyright Board to classify electronic media cards as a form of recordable media and tax them based on their storage size; 50¢ for 1GB or less; $1 for more than 1GB but less than 8; and $3 for 8GB or more.

The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) is pushing for a new “levy” on electronic memory cards that is sure to make many finally realize just how ludicrous and out of touch the organization really is.
Faced with declining blank physical media consumption, for a while now the CPCC has been pushing to have the levy extended to iPods and other portable media players, so far to no avail.

Apparently unable to convince lawmakers that electronic devices are a form of recordable media, the CPCC has petitioned the Copyright Board to categorize electronic memory cards as a type of recordable media instead.

From the petition:

It’s incredulous that the CPCC would even propose such an idea, and proves just how desperate it’s become. Sure, one could reasonably argue that electronic memory cards can be used to copy and share digital music, but they are used for a whole range of purposes that have absolutely nothing to do with music.
Why, for example, should photographers have to subsidize the CPCC? An 8GB SanDisk memory card on Amazon.com currently costs about $12 canadian dollars. The levy would slap an additional $3 on it raising the price to $15! That’s an additional 25% you would have to pay for an item that has absolutely no connection with music.

In fact, as pointed out by Canadian copyright guru Michael Geist, research has shown that the main market for SD cards is, in fact, digital cameras.
The same holds true for smartphone users looking to add a bit of extra memory storage for photos, data, etc.. It is the second leading market for SD cards.
Is a new hidden tax on digital cameras and smartphones really something Canadians want?