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Tuesday, 17 May 2005 |
New iPod
Tax Incoming?
Xfm Online -
UK
To make up the money lost through digital piracy, UK record companies are
looking at a new tax recently introduced in Holland that could increase the cost
of digital music players.
The so-called ‘iPod Tax’ has just been introduced in the Netherlands and is
added to the cost of any digital music player. The UKs music industry is
currently investigating similar legislation with the taxes collected going to
record labels to help make up for losses from digital piracy.
The copyright levy will be added to the price of every MP3 player sold, based on
the assumption that some music on the device has not been paid for and may even
be charged according to the size of a player's hard drive.
Critics have suggested that this means music purchased legally is being bought
twice, while there is also a suggestion that by adding the tax the music
industry would be legitimising the piracy.
Following the recent Dutch legislation, the price of MP3 players can now be
legally raised by as much as €180 (approximately £120) to the price of Apple's
60GB iPod, for example.
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