Thank goodness the Japanese plan to charge royalties on portable digital music players fell apart yesterday in Tokyo.

According to a New York Times report (http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/technology/AP-Japan-iPod-Tax.html), Japan's recording industry has been urging an “iPod tax” tax for two years since the explosive success of Apple's iPod.

The planned tax would have added from 2 percent to 5 percent to the price of portable players, with the money going to recording companies, composers and artists.