A newly proposed Canadian bill would affix a tax on digital media storage devices ranging from personal MP3 players to computer hard drives.

Democratic MP Charlie Angus (pictured) is behind the proposed measure C-499 ([URL=http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Docid=4349338&file=4]PDF[/URL]), which would extend the country’s 1997 Private Copying Levy to cover “copying devices,” specifically "a device that contains a permanently embedded data storage medium, including solid state or hard disk, designed, manufactured and advertised for the purpose of copying sound recordings, excluding any prescribed kind of recording device."

Angus, for his part, does not expect the bill to get very far, but hoped that its introduction would spark debate on the topic. He stated in [URL=http://www.charlieangus.net/newsitem.php?id=551]a press release[/URL] that “it’s time parliamentarians got serious about updating our copyright laws.”

Angus continued:

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