Apple to give levy back to iPod owners

Music lovers who paid extra for their iPods because of a levy will soon be able to get their money back, Apple Canada announced Monday.

"Apple is pleased that the Supreme Court of Canada let stand a lower court ruling that blank media levies on iPods are invalid, and will shortly announce a claims process so consumers can request a refund for the levies they paid," the company said in a release.

In July, the Supreme Court refused to overturn a Federal Court of Canada ruling that quashed the levy, which was applied to iPods and similar digital music players. The tax had been passed on to consumers by companies like Apple and was collected by the Canadian Private Copying Collective, a non-profit agency that works on behalf of musicians and record companies. The levy was in effect from December 2003 until a year later, when the Federal Court overturned it.

The Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, which represents retailers and manufactures like Future Shop, Wal-Mart Canada, Apple Canada, Sony Canada and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada, had lobbied to have it abolished. The tariff was $2 for non-removable memory capacity of up to one gigabyte, $15 for one to 10 GB, and $25 for more than 10 GB. About $4 million was collected by the CPCC from sales of iPods and the like during the tariff's one-year life.

The CPCC got the levy instituted in the first place because it successfully argued that iPod users were making illegal copies of songs, so money should be collected on behalf of the copyright holders. Details of how to apply for the refund from Apple were not announced on Monday.