An iPod Identity Crisis

Sometimes the struggle over the definition of the meaning of an artifact takes place within the arena of law. Here in Canada, the Copyright Board will soon consider a request by members of the music industry to define MP3 devices such as iPods "audio recording media" rather than playing devices. In other words, they want to argue that MP3 devices are equivalent to cassettes or CDs, not to Walkman's or CD players. They then want to have a fee levied on the sale of such devices to compensate artists and music labels for the illegal use of their music. So it appears that the iPod is having a bit of an identity crisis. As one observer put: “They're really getting quite existential here. They're asking the copyright board to look into the soul of an iPod and determine its true identity.” Check out the whole story in the Globe.