That’s what this proposed iPod tax in the UK amounts to. The official line of bullshit is that the ability to copy CDs into digital formats (they call it “format shifting”) represents a “value” for which the record companies are not being adequately compensated.

The reality, however, is simply that these dirty scumbag musicians and their filthy swindler record companies figure they don’t have enough money already so they want to take a slice of the money I’m getting for my iPods. As if they have anything to do with the design and manufacture of iPods. No. Of course they don’t. We design them. We write the software. We run the store. We source the parts and manufacture the iPods and sell them. Nonetheless these assholes want my money because people play their music on my devices. What up with that? Do the makers of TV shows go around saying they want a slice of every television that gets sold?

Thank God the hacks have been utterly dismissive of this ridiculous proposal by the UK music business. Their counterparts in the States just report stuff like this with a straight face, as if maybe it makes sense. Not so the Brits who just spew contempt. My fave is this guy in the Torygraph who says if you’re going to tax people for “format shifting” then why not tax them for other things, like the ability to carry a CD out to your car, or to your living room, or the ability to open your patio doors and listen to music outside, or the ability to press “pause” button or even the ability to hear music better if you clean wax from your ears (ie “wax shifting”)?

God, I love the Brits. I really do.