There has certainly been plenty of talk over the last few years about government in various countries contemplating putting a tax on iPods and other music and video devices in order to compensate for sales lost to piracy.
A quick search for "government proposes tax on ipods" using Google, and we see stories about this happening in the UK, Japan, Canada and the Netherlands, there's probably more too, here's an example of one of the most recent stories on this topic, http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/05/08/Japan-eyes-adding-copyright-fee-to-iPod-price_1.html - the question I am proposing is, does this "tax" then allow me to go on a music downloading frenzy because I have paid this tax on my player.
If the policy is ever implemented, will someone attempt to put a number on what amount of pirated music is okay to possess on your "taxed" media player, or will it just be carte-blance, get as much as you can?
If we're paying $4 Tax on each gigabyte, a 100GB player will cost an additional $400, that might seem like a lot, but it sort of gives you the ability to never again have to buy any music or video files for your player (unless you can't find it on the web or amongst friends).
Given that I might have to go out and buy a new player just to pay this tax and get the right to have pirated music, why just stop at 8GB - one of those newer iPod classics can hold something like 160GB of files, I can put my entire library of CD's, DVDs and Records on one plus have a enough space for hundreds of thousands of pirated files.
Where would the boundaries or limits be drawn and how would it be enforced? What are your thoughts?
