Conservatives oppose Canadian copyright levy on iPods

CANADA – Canada’s governing Conservative party said it would oppose a private member’s bill which would add a tax to MP3 players in order to compensate copyright holders from illegal copying. National Democratic Party member Charlie Angus introduced bill C-499 which extends the small tax added to all blank media, such as CDs and DVDs — to devices that can reproduce media, including MP3 players and computers. But Conservative heritage minister James Moore promised the government would “fight this new tax every single step of the way”. “It’s not in the interest of the music industry to make it more expensive to buy the devices on which they’re listening to Canadian content,” he said.