How do the CPCC justify their proposed levies?
The CPCC website used to contain a “fact sheet” that described their methodology for deriving proposed levy rates. Because the content on the CPCC website is quite dynamic, links to the site are frequently broken. Here is a quick summary of their position as described in the fact sheet: • the “rights holders” to be compensated by the levy are authors, performers, and makers • calculations are based on the assumption that a commercial CD contains 14 songs of an average length of four minutes each, sells for $20, and returns $1.50 to the rights holders • the imputed value of “a song” to a rights holder is $1.50 / 14 = 10 cents (rounded for simplicity) • by making a copy, consumers are depriving the rights holders of the compensation they would have received had the consumer purchased a commercial CD • to recover the lost compensation, the levy should be 10 cents “per song” • if the memory in an MP3 player can hold 1000 songs, then a reasonable levy would be 1000 x 10 cents or $100 • the
Rather than read the abstract below, go directly to the CPCC fact sheet page here and read their own words. You should also read the CPCC Preliminary Statement of Position which directly addresses many of these points. Here is a quick summary of their position (please see BOTH the fact sheet and position paper for full details): • the “rights holders” to be compensated by the levy are authors, performers, and makers • calculations are based on the assumption that a commercial CD contains 14 songs of an average length of four minutes each, sells for $20, and returns $1.50 to the rights holders • the imputed value of “a song” to a rights holder is $1.50 / 14 = 10 cents (rounded for simplicity) • by making a copy, consumers are depriving the rights holders of the compensation they would have received had the consumer purchased a commercial CD • to recover the lost compensation, the levy should be 10 cents “per song” • if the memory in an MP3 player can hold 1000 songs, then a reasonable l
