Ah, the iPod: gorgeous, teeny, energy-efficient, high-capacity, versatile, and priced well beyond many people's means. Don't get us wrong; we think $399 is a perfectly fair price for what you get, but the simple truth is that lots of folks who would just love to own an iPod can't justify dropping four Bennies on any portable music player that doesn't include a gun and mask to be used in an ensuing liquor store robbery to cover that month's rent. But hey, what if some government were to slap what amounts to an additional 16% tax on that already-pricey iPod? Well, listen up, Canadians, because if you think the iPod is expensive now, just keep your fingers crossed that a certain proposed levy doesn't come to pass.

See, faithful viewer Alvaro Heiden directed us to a Wired article about the "Private Copying Tariff," a tax that, if enacted, would require that manufacturers and importers of certain products shell out beaucoup bucks to the Canadian government. What kind of products, you ask? Well, pretty much anything that "can be used to store music." In Canadian funds, blank CD-R media would carry a 59 cent tax per disc (about 37 cents in USD), while blank DVD-Rs would be taxed at CAD $2.27 each (USD about $1.42). But here's the kicker: MP3 players like a certain white-and-silver podlike thing we could mention would be taxed at CAD $21 per gigabyte. Factor in the iPod's 5 GB hard drive, and Apple's looking at a potential tax of about USD $66 on every single unit sold in Canada. Heck, it could be worse; each 20 GB Nomad Jukebox would be taxed USD $264-- when it only costs USD $319.95 at Amazon. Ouch.

As to where all this taxeriffic cash would go, it would be paid to the Canadian Private Copying Collective-- who, in turn, is then supposed to "distribute the funds collected (minus administration fees) to musicians who hold copyrights on music in Canada." Getting the picture, here? The idea is that since these products might be used to copy music illegally, the proposed levy is meant to compensate the music industry for its "lost sales." So if you buy blank CD-Rs in Canada to back up your data, or blank DVD media for your wedding video, or even a CompactFlash card for your digital camera, you're automatically guilty of Naughty Music Theft and need to cough up some restitution. (Sure, technically the tax is on the manufacturers and importers, not the customers-- but if you think that the tariff wouldn't be passed through in increased prices, you need to stop mixing cough syrup and furniture polish.)

The real irony here, of course, is that this bizarre plan would actually hurt independent musicians who legally burn copies of their own music to sell; they'd be paying a tax on their own blank media that would then be paid out to the music industry at large. It's sort of a "join the Empire or suffer the consequences" scenario. The good news is that "legal experts" don't expect the tariff to pass, but if it does, we bet it wouldn't be more than about thirty seconds before vans full of contraband iPods start streaming towards the border. Hey, c'mon-- our neighbors to the north deserve semi-reasonably-priced Digital Hub devices, too, right?