Various media report that Japan's music publisher's association has requested that a fee be levied on iPods, now dubbed the "iPod" tax. This is interesting for a couple of reasons.

-It underscores the point I have made before, that those worried about the power of special interests in the copyright realm should be the last to support tax-based payment systems for IP.

-These fees to compensate media companies for piracy tend to be imposed on special purpose media (recordable tapes or disks, for example) or players like the iPod. Often, though, general purpose media such as the computers themselves are exempt. This means that the tax system penalizes the development of special purpose media. On the other hand, if the tax is extended to general purpose media, then it penalizes consumers who do not use their media for piracy.