Japanese Recording Industry Wants An iPod Tax
from the give-us-money-for-your-innovation dept
While US recording industry execs have been complaining about how they don't get any revenue from iPod sales (a product they didn't have anything to do with creating, and whose predecessors they fought against, claiming they were illegal), the recording execs in Japan are taking a slightly different approach: demanding the government sets up an "iPod tax" to simply hand over some money any time anyone buys one of the devices. This is similar to what's happened in other countries, though, Canada recently shot down such a law. It's pretty hard to see why the recording industry deserves a share of the profits from a device they worked so hard to kill. It would be interesting to see Japanese giant Sony's position on this one, as they have businesses on both sides of the fence... and part of the reason their early attempts at digital music players have failed where the iPod succeeded was that they were too willing to give in to the demands of the execs at Sony Music.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Have your cake and eat it too...?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Have your cake and eat it too...?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Subject Given
When i buy a new car, do I have to pay a tax to the oil company?
Do the record labels want a cut of walkman profits too?
WTF???
This doesnt even make sence anymore. At least you can see their side with DRM - it is stupid and wrong - but understandable. This is just assinine.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Re: Japanese Recording Industry Wants An iPod Tax
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Just like the cable industry
This is an industry just as evil as the recording industry ... check this:
When you call on your cell phone --- you get charged
The person you call -- also gets charged
If you charge 1 cent tax for Ipod downloads, everybody will go back to free P2P (Encrypted)
[ link to this | view in thread ]