The music goes 'round and 'round and comes out here.

While the battle for control of Afghanistan continues in back country mountain valleys and caves, a war of a different sort is shaping up back in Canada, and our homegrown version of the Taliban, in the form of the federal Copyright Board, had better start looking for some mountain caves of its own for shelter.

In case you never heard of it (and I'd bet few Canadians know it exists) the Copyright Board, by its own definition, is an "economic regulatory body empowered to establish, either mandatorily, (their word, not mine) or at the request of an interested party, the royalties to be paid for the use of works protected by copyright, when the administration of these rights is entrusted to a collective society."

The "collective society" in question being the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) representing songwriters, composers, music publishers, recording artists, musicians and recording labels who all claim to be losing revenue because their fans choose to make analog and, much more frequently today, digital copies of their works. The CPCC, in short, has enough horsepower to convince the federal government of the need to apply levies (do not call them taxes) against blank recording media to reimburse CPCC members for the rampant rip-off by their former customers. Last year the government program reportedly paid $22 million back to the industry.

Legislation came into effect way back in 1998 to make this all possible allowing for a process whereby the CPCC proposes levy rates to the Copyright Board, as well as determines the blank recording media to which the levies will apply. The board then holds hearings to listen to objectors, then either approves or asks the CPCC to modify its demands. Once set, the levies apply for a two-year period. The first levy was. set in 1999 covering mainly blank audio cassettes and recordable CDs. Those levies are automatically built into the wholesale price of all blank recordable media sold or otherwise disposed of across Canada. The taxes (oops..sorry...levies) are passed down the chain through distributors and retailers to the ultimate consumers.

The rates set for the years 2001-02 did not make the CPCC very happy though. Brian Chater, a special consultant to the CPCC said "We will continue working in the future to raise the amount of the levy further as technological change makes private copying an increasingly inexpensive alternative to purchasing music on a commercial basis for the rights holders."

The next change in the levy structure due for January 1, 2003. No longer content with the collection of millions of dollars of taxes, levies on cassettes and CDs, the CPCC is proposing charges be paid by consumers on items like CDRs, DVDs and hard drives.

Another powerful industry lobby group, the Canadian Advanced Technology Alliance, says the rise of a huge grey market would be a given and Canadian consumers will buy the memory and recording products they want from Web-based retailers in the U.S. or other countries since the Canadian taxes will not be collected by Canada Post or Canada Customs on products imported by consumers.

Another loophole which would probably be closed, is for a manufacturer or importer of media or applicable memory device to record a little bit of sound on it before shipping because the legislation in its present form states, "...a blank audio recording medium means a recording medium on which no sounds have been fixed..." even if those sounds could be erased or recorded over after purchase.

One bonus for consumers coming out of this mess is that it is no longer illegal or an infringement of copyright to make a copy of a recording, even if you do not own the original and as long as you only copy it for your own use. Of course, the CPCC would encourage the practice as long as it collects the expected millions of dollars generated by the tax grab on almost every kind of recording media imaginable.

Meanwhile, the music goes 'round and 'round and comes out her...for now.