As noted on Yahoo, in Canadian Mint taxing musician for using image of penny in protest, a Canadian musician named “Dave Gunning says he wanted to pay tribute to the Canadian penny, which will cease production at the end of 2012, on his upcoming album, “No More Pennies.” So his “album cover shows a person at a lunch counter attempting to come up with enough change to pay for a cup of coffee.”
When the Royal Canadian Mint found out about this, “it told Dave Gunning that for every 2,000 albums sold, he must fill out an application asking for permission to continue using the image, then pay $1,200 in fees.” After all,
“The Mint has an Intellectual Property Policy in place to protect its IP assets, which includes coin images, and ensure their appropriate use,” a Mint spokeswoman told the CBC. “In instances where an approved use is being made for commercial gain (as would be the case with an ad campaign or selling music CDs), royalty fees are applied.”
The alleged purpose of copyright law is to help artists. Here we have a fascist central state, claiming not only the monopoly right to print money, but a copyright in images associated with the money; and when a local artist tries to pay tribute to the money, even though it’s being discontinued, the state shakes him down for more. Sad. Sad.
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