Copyright Board Of Canada Imposes Tax On Downloaded Music

I really feel bad for our neighbors to the north. The Canadian dollar is officially worth more than our US dollar, and yet they will likely pay more for most products than we ever will. It doesn't make sense, but then again what does these days? To add fuel to the fire, now they're going to have to pay a little more for their music.

Thanks to a new ruling by the Copyright Board of Canada, individual tracks sold via digital music services like iTunes will be subject to a 3.1 cent tax, and tracks sold as part of an album will be subject to a 1.5 cent tax. You can bet your sweet ass that the companies offering those download services will be passing the buck onto the consumer.

The icing on the cake is that they have ruled the decision to be retroactive back to 1996. I really don't know how many tracks have been downloaded in Canada, but companies like Apple are going to have to pony up a good bit of cash thanks to this decision.

Canada's Copyright Board slaps tax on music downloads [via engadget]