The Register is reporting that a tax being proposed by the Stichting Thuiskopie foundation is set to become law in the Netherlands. The tax is based on the amount of storage on the device, at a rate of €3.28 ($4.3) per gigabyte. This would add an additional €180 ($235) to the price of a 60GB ipod.

Am I the only one who thinks this is insane? It’s time for these record companies to get with the program and stop charging ridiculous prices for their product instead of sponsoring bogus levies and taxes.

The article also mentions an existing levy in Germany on PC hard drives “…that will soon become larger than the entire PC industry revenue if it is left in place.”

Glad I live in the US!

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