The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) - an association of composers, recording artists, publishers, and record labels - is asking the Copyright Board of Canada to re-introduce a controversial extra fee into the sale price of MP3 players in Canada. If the fee is imposed, the average price of the said devices could climb by as much as CAN$ 75.

"We'd all like lots of things to be free," said David Basskin, a member of the CPCC's board of directors. "But those who create the music deserve to be compensated."

According to the Canadian Press, the Federal Court of Appeal struck down a similar "iPod tax" attached to the price of the hard drives of MP3 players over two years ago. The Canadian Press noted that at the time, these didn't fall into the category of "audio recording media" because, unlike CDs and cassettes, they can't be separated from the device that plays the sound on them. Under current legislation, the Copyright Board isn't allowed to place a levy on a playing device like a CD or tape player.

The CPCC is now asking the Canadian Copyright Board to consider MP3 players as a whole, hard drive included, under the category of "audio recording media." The group is seeking levies ranging from CAN$ 5 to CAN$ 75, based on the capacity of the player's hard drive.

David Fewer, an intellectual property law professor at the University of Ottawa, however, remains skeptical that the new approach will work given current copyright legislation. According to Fewer, MP3 players fall into both the categories of "player" and "medium." "They're really getting quite existential here," he said. "They're asking the copyright board to look into the soul of an iPod and determine its true identity. That's hard to do."