On 31 July 2005, Canadians were finally exempted from a tax rule which implied a royalty over digital audio players with 1GB, 10GB or over 10GB of non-removable memory. These taxes were considered illegal by the Supreme Court of Canada but, unfortunately, it stayed up to the companies to give the refund of those royalties.  David Basskin, of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the non-profit agency which collects tariffs on behalf of musicians and record companies, said that CPCC was very dissapointed, since they knew the sole purpose for those devices was to copy music.

Surprisingly, and contrary to Apple's own policy, RTV71 used our news submit to tell us that they are giving a total refund for the levies they paid when acquiring an iPod. Apple also showed satisfaction with the Supreme Court of Canada's decision and will shortly announce a process for those consumers, in order to get their money back.

Music lovers who paid extra for their iPods because of a levy will soon be able to get their money back, Apple Canada announced Monday."Apple is pleased that the Supreme Court of Canada let stand a lower court ruling that blank media levies on iPods are invalid, and will shortly announce a claims process so consumers can request a refund for the levies they paid," the company said in a release.

There's no doubt almost everyone wins with this decision - the government, the consumers and Apple. In fact, this symbolic - economically speaking - refund, brings more attention to Apple and to its popular iPod player. As a consequence, more people will eventually use iTunes and contribute to the growing number of legal music downloads. This decision rises a new question, which is: will they start charging levies for music downloads? I just can't see the CPCC standing there doing nothing...what about you?

Source: CBC.ca