Michael G mixes apples and oranges again in his Star column.

He’s down on the CPCC proposal to the Copyright Board to put a levy on iPods and mp3s, same as blank tape, blank CDs and other recording devices.

I don’t recall it was ever creators who wanted that levy. Taxing recording media rather than licensing content is a pretty crude measure at best, almost the opposite of collective licensing, where the price is negotiated to fit the actual value of the copying and it’s easy to accomodate for private uses and fair dealing.

But Geist goes on to slam Socan and Access Copyright as if they were part of the problem, though collectives like these would seem to be the solution.

Update: “pcommodore” sent us this comment: “The SOCAN and AC comments were a bit beside the point, but it isn’t hard to follow. The Cons aren’t fans of collectives to begin with and they hate the private copying levy. With a government looking for votes, taking on barbers and school kids won’t win those collectives any friends.”