Last month, we blogged press reports that Japan was considering revising its copyright law to charge royalties on digital music players — dubbed an "iPod tax."  The Associated Press reports that Japan has abandoned the effort:

Under [the current] system, the charge, generally 3% of the product’s wholesale price, is included in the price tag so most shoppers aren’t even aware they’re paying it. But they apply to recording devices and other gadgets that can be used to duplicate copyrighted material. Since last year, recording companies and other lobbies here have been grumbling that the same system should be applied to recording devices with hard-drives, including MP3 players like Apple Computer Inc.’s iPods as well as flash-memory players.