Mozilla 1.0 is almost—finally—here. Version 0.9.9 has been released and its a good one. Download and use it now.

David Akin has an excellent story in today’s Globe about a proposal to extend the royalty fees on existing digital media, and to broaden what media are covered.

The proposed amendments to the Private Copying Tariff is being championed by the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) which redistributes royalties to its members—the copyright holders of sound recordings.

The copyright holders of other digital material (computer programs, literary works, and movies) won’t see any of it.

What does this mean for the average consumer?

Up to $100 more for MP3 players like the Nomad and iPod, an additional $3 per box for blank CDs, as well as extra fees things like flash memory (used in digital cameras and PDAs) and blank DVDs.