That 20-gigabyte MP3 player going under the Christmas tree this season could soon cost 20 per cent more if the Copyright Board approves a proposed levy tomorrow on the sale of digital music devices.

I'd gladly vote for this in the UK if it went along with Canada's other law about copying for personal use not being a violation of copyright. An upfront fixed fee, and all the music you can kazaa? Sorted!

Of course, whether it's fair or not all depends on how the money is distributed to the artists. (If that remark sounds familiar, it's because I also made it the other day on the Karma beta forum -- but as it's got nothing to do with beta versions of the Karma firmware, it didn't really belong.)

Peter