Japan Says No To iPod Tax

Legal Issues

from the take-that dept

The Japanese recording industry had been calling for an iPod tax — a levy on digital music players they claimed was necessary to reimburse them for revenues “lost” to home copying — for some time, but a government committee there has rejected the idea. The country already charges such a tax on older devices, like CD recorders, and the recording industry claims the decision “robbed it of revenue”. It’s hard to see exactly why the labels in Japan, or anywhere else for that matter, feel the right to tack an extra charge on to a product with which they’ve got absolutely nothing to do. The assumption that every music player owner illegally copies music is completely bogus, as is the entertainment industry’s idea of “lost sales” due to piracy. Then, again, these are companies that would just assume fair use was criminalized, so from their viewpoint, yes, everybody that rips music from a CD onto a music player is a criminal.