The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) says it will not appeal a recent Federal Court of Appeal decision that turned down an application to add a tariff to MP3 players.
The levy of up to C$75 ($74) on MP3 players received approval from the Copyright Board and was designed to compensate creators for individuals copying music files from their personal collections.
The levy was opposed by various retail groups, as well as the Canadian Recording Industry Association, which asked the court for intervener status in the case.
On Jan. 10, an appeals court decision held that the Copyright Board could not justify the levy based upon the Canadian Copyright Act.
In a statement Thursday, the CPCC said while it still believes creators should receive compensation for private copying, the organization could not justify taking the case to Canada’s highest court.
“This is a great loss for rights holders,” said Annie Morin, chair of the CPCC. “No one disputes that a large percentage of Canadians make copies of recorded music onto their digital audio recorders. The private copying levy is the only compensation available to rights holders for the hundreds of millions of tracks that are copied without authorization onto digital audio recorders each year by Canadians.”
The CPCC has collected C$199 million ($197 million) since 1999 from levies on blank media such as recordable CDs.
