Japan to abandon iPod copyright fee

I believe Germany has a quite similar law, very much intact, sad for the customer (as it won't reduce the money they make you spend on the actual license).

Many countries have a private copying levy. In exchange the consumer tends to receive more relaxed fair use provisions in local copyright legislation.

See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy

I wouldn't say they have contempt for their customers. They just know what they do, and aren't out to sue them to extinction...

You obviously have not been to Japan or know there culture, but you can go to any CD rental store (all over the place) and rent a CD. I'd say 75% of the people that do is to put it onto a minidisc (no one uses CD players much in Japan, more MD or ..iPod).

At least the tax on MD players/discs are not noticeable at all, if anything I think it is just fine. Now what they want to do in the states, that is absurd... The ammounts are completly diffrent.

You're saying that most ipod owners DON'T have illegal content on their devices? A policy like this makes perfect sense to me, especially if it means the RIAA will piss off.

Personally, I use a zune. It sucks having to deal with vmware fusion nonstop, but everything works perfectly aaand all my music is legal.

Hopefully apple negates the whole argument and does a similar system through itunes. I really think an entire generation of music pirates would go legit.