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Downloading Music is 100% LEGAL, In Canada

In Canada we already pay for the right to copy songs off the web.

Downloading MP3s is the modern day equivalent of making a mixed audio tape of your favourite songs. The music industry disliked it then and they dislike it even more today. But many of us are unaware that recording and downloading music in Canada is not considered piracy - in fact according to this article by lawyer Corey Bergstein it is 100% legal.

In a lengthy article in the Financial Post (October 29, 2003), Mr. Bergstein said he is not afraid to admit he copies music regularly from the web for his personal use. He is not afraid, because he says it is perfectly legal in Canada to copy music for private use.

You see, in Canada, we all pay a special royalty whenever we buy blank tapes and CD-Rs and these funds are “distributed to artists and members of the various Canadian music industry collectives such as the Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN).”

The reason we pay this levy, is that in the 1990s the Canadian music industry took its complaints about illegal copying to Parliament. Who were the culprits siphoning dollars out of the pockets of the Canadian music industry? “Bootleggers? Street Vendors? Black Marketers? No. The music industry's targets were Maxell, Fuji, TDK, Sony and all the other companies that make the cassette tapes onto which music was being copied, with the even greater threat of CD-Rs (recordable CDs) just over the horizon.”

Parliament stepped in and agreed to apply a levy to blank media. But, and it’s a big but, the levy is in essence a tax, and you can’t tax an illegal activity. “So in 1998, simultaneous with the impositition with the levy, the Canadian Copyright Act was amended to provide for the express exclusion of copying for private use from being an infringement of copyright.”

That’s the story from Mr. Bergstein, and it is probably completely accurate – which is lucky, because I do download single songs. But if I want an entire CD (or most of the tracks on a CD) for my collection, I gladly plunk down the money for the entire CD. Remember the artists deserve your support, especially if you want them to continue to bring you enjoyment and touch your soul.