This same tax is paid on blank media in the states. It’s put right in the cost of the blank whether or not you are going to use it for copying legal material. There is no refund if the blank is intended for copying momma’s birthday party or the next business meeting. This has been on-going since the cassette era. Oddly, while it is billed to pay the artists, to date no one penny has made it to any artists’ pocket, inspite of lawsuits from the artists themselves trying to get their fair share.

Just like my northern brethren who pay for the right to copy, so have we. Nor do we see refunds for non-infringement uses, as it is assumed it goes for that no matter it’s use. I therefore feel all income has been paid for licensing on the date I purchase a blank for my use.

The cartels now want to kill the cd. The main reasons are that it is not as flexible in locking as digital files and they are getting static from the customer on a cd that doesn’t act like a cd when programming is put in, from the government wanting software laws to apply to music discs that have programming, and the cd patent owners that say the discs can’t be labeled as cd because they don’t meet cd qualification requirements for standards.

and while im on the subject, mp3 was popular beacuse it was small, easily transferable and a relatively tolerable sound format, if your going to charge a dollar a song i want it in FLAC, i dont have a fancy new sound system to listen to lossy mp3, charge me for what its worth, not for what you want it to be worth. My shit’s not gold and i dont try to pass it off as such.