The escalators in Old Street tube station are wallpapered with iPod adverts, and I could not stop myself wondering why? And then I thought: why am I asking why?

It used to be that iPods were a form of currency in the tech community – the default desirable prize for any geek competition – but now I have a phone, I have a tablet, I have Spotify, I have direct music purchases from several musicians.  I find it hard to conceive that anyone with an iPod has not actually just bought an iPhone instead.

Perhaps this is my problem.

So this morning I discovered:

Copying CDs to iPods to become legal under copyright law shake-up

It’s a law many of us have been breaking for years – but now music fans can copy CDs to iPods and laptops without being treated as criminals.

Ministers are shaking up copyright laws to allow users to copy material to devices such as eBooks, tablets and phones for their own use, but it will still be illegal to give copies to other people.

Controversially, the government ruled out imposing an iTax on all music storage devices, a levy imposed across Europe.

It puts Britain at loggerheads with Brussels, which wants to charge users for copying – or format-shifting – music files.

For example, in France, a 64GB iPod is hit with an iTax of £12.20.

…and atop the other feelings described above I can’t raise more than the following observations:

• The French are crazy.
• The horse has not merely bolted but the stable has also burned down, and they’re still trying to tax the blacksmith.
• What’s a CD? I think I remember them, I stored them somewhere and forgot.

Maybe for once the UK has realised that adding taxes might just kill off the vestiges of a dying market niche and thereby annoy a major (potential?) taxpayer?