I heard there is a fee/tax built into the price of blank media by law, and that the proceeds from it are given to the record companies as compensation for possible illegal copies of their recordings made with that blank media.

Is this true?

I know for sure that it's in DAT tapes (one reason it killed a good format before it got off the ground).

Don't know about recordable DVD and CD media.

this is true in canada but not the us.

Quoted: this is true in canada but not the us.

You sure about that?  See the Audio Home Recording Act.  A three percent tariff on every blank media.  The killer is when a local band burns a release of their album the have to pay the RIAA (indirectly through the U.S. Copyright Office) because they may have used the media to copy a Britney Spears album.

Actually in the US, its only on CD that are marked for "music."

However CDs that are marked as being for "data" arent affected.

That being said there isnt anything to stop you from using data CDs to burn music on them, nor is there anythign to stop you from using music CDs to burn data on.

Since they are the same most people just buy Data CDs because they are cheaper.

The only difference that I've heard of is that you can only use music CDs in those stand alone CD burners, the kind you would keep in your entertainment center with your turner and CD player. But who the fuck uses those most people will just use thier computer.

So wasn't this the result of negotioations already by the RIAA, and as such implies that they have already agreed on a compensation for copying of copyright works?

Yup. The major manufacurers pay a license fee to make the standard. Not too long ago, one such dvd-r manufacturer was sued over this issue.

Quoted: this is true in canada but not the us.

try again....



last I heard it wa sonly in DVD media format, CDs are still cheap, which is good because it woudl make copying music more expensive (not illegal up here )

makes me feel slightly less bad about engaging in "copyright infringement" activities.