A recent federal court ruling means lower prices on iPods in Canada. Expect to pay $25CDN less for a 20 or 40GB model, and $15CDN less for the 4GB iPod mini at Canadian retailers Future Shop and Best Buy, or through the Apple store.

The ruling handed down by the Federal Court of Appeal of Canada says that the Copyright Board of Canada improperly imposed a levy on digital media devices, beginning in December 2003. The price reduction is being immediately passed on to consumers directly from Apple, who until now has been picking up the tab for the tax.

The original logic behind the levy was that making hard drive-based players easier to acquire would increase illegal music sharing. Industry experts pretended to be worrying about ‘music artists’ losing royalties as a result. This argument is completely spurious: if industry experts were so concerned about artist royalties, they could certainly choose to pay them more reasonably. Plus, doesn’t acquiring a hard drive-based music player make it also likely to increase *legal* music sharing, as well? Given that this ruling was handed down long before the advent of the iTMS Canada, and during the birth of hysteria about how digital downloads will ruin the music industry. Personally, I tend to think that it’s bad music that is ruining the music industry. What do you all think?