iPod levy: Copyright Board decision quashed
p2pnet news | Music:- The Federal Court of Appeal ("FCA") has quashed the Copyright Board’s July 19, 2007 decision to go ahead with its planned hearing to certify a levy of up to $75 on iPods and other Digital Audio Recorders.
The FCA hearing on the judicial review of the Board’s decision was held yesterday. It took the Court less than 24 hours to render its decision – which told the Board that the Court’s previous decision on the same issue from 2004 is "dispositive."
The Court, per Sharlow, J.A., said:
I read that case as authority for the proposition that the Copyright Board has no legal authority to certify a tariff on digital audio recorders or on the memory permanently embedded in digital audio recorders. That proposition is binding on the Copyright Board….
I acted in this matter for the Retail Council of Canada, which along with Apple Canada, etc. had brought the applications to quash.
The Applicants were awarded their costs. The reasons are very brief. The Court was very decisive.
Howard Knopf – Excess Copyright
[Knopf is an Ottawa-based copyright lawyer who's been lead counsel on legal challenges both at the Copyright Board and in the Courts against the excesses of the music industry establishment. He's regularly quoted in the mainstream media and acted against the CRIA in the file sharing litigation, and continues to act against the CPCC, in which the CRIA is still a major stakeholder, on the levy front.]
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