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If I'm not mistaken, the so-called "iPod tax" was never actually passed. The Canadian copyright laws were last amended in 1998 and, while three bills have been presented to the House, they have all died on the order paper because elections were called.
The blank CD tax was put in, but the blank DVD version wasn't actually passed. I have no idea how this tax is actually collected since the price of blank CDs in bulk would appear to be similar to the tax rate, leaving $0 for the manufacturer, distributor or retailer ... an unlikely scenario.
This can be contrasted with the photocopier tax where a few cents (or whatever) is collected and used to reimburse authors (as a category, not as individuals). But obviously this is impossible to implement in the general market so it is actually only libraries that honour and pay it, as far as I know.
I continue to believe that the best copyright solution is actually less: that protecting a creation for a period of time (like patented vs generic drugs) is a tangible social good and, likewise, ending the protection while the creation still has value is a tangible social good. You can argue about the specifics (for drugs the time period is 20 years), but in my view 50 years after the death of the creator is harmful and clearly does nothing to benefit the long dead creator whom we are allegedly trying to protect.
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