Things that make you go 'hmmm'

I guess the public outcry regarding proposed copyright measures by the government didn't have as much of an effect as we thought. Now we will be seeing changes in the levies paid along with the purchase of digital media. The proposed levies range in price including:

• 85 cents for each rewritable CD and MiniDisc
• $2 for each 1 GB removable electronic memory card
• $25 for a digital audio recorder between 1 and 10 GBs
• $75 for digital audio recorder of more than 30 GBs

What's next? Levies on our hard drives? We can use them to store music and movies. What about the internet? Levies on our ISP fee? Will that be next? What happens when writers and publishers ask for a levy on every notebook and sheet of paper because it could potentially be used to store their copyrighted works? Photocopiers should be illegal!

Supposedly, the levy on recordable media is the price we pay for the right to be allowed to make private copies. No levy = no deal. Private copying becomes copyright infringement.

Has anyone thought about auditing the entertainment industry to see exactly where these levies go that supposedly benefit the artists? We certainly have no proof of where the money is going.