Andre Yoskowitz
7 May 2008 14:14
According to Asahi Shimbun report, the Japanese government is set to propose a plan that will charge "copyright royalties on sales of iPods and other portable digital music players, as well as on digital hard disk recorders".
The agency in charge, the Agency of Cultural Affairs has not made a decision on the amount of the fee but it expected to be low, about 100 yen (95 cents USD) per sale, for an annual total about 1 billion yen (about $9.5 million USD). All fees collected would then go to songwriters, artists, and the record labels. Older devices such as DVD burners and minidisk players are already subject to a similar copyright fee.
This is not the first time the Japanese recording industry has tried to get this "iPod Tax" passed. In 2005 the proposal was almost imposed but a government committee failed to reach consensus on the issue and it fell apart.