The prospect of new fees or taxes on Internet services is not the only digital tax proposal aimed at technology use (previous digital tax policy posts on digital sales tax, Netflix tax, ISP tax). For the past year, the music industry has engaged in a campaign to expand the existing tax on blank CDs to all digital devices, including smart phones. The groups argue that while the government is sorting out the details of its new digital device tax, it should provide a $40 million annual handout to the industry to compensate for consumer copying. It has proposed a four year commitment at a public cost of $160 million.

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