...I do think it is interesting that France, which is battling Apple over the length of the unlock DOES charge a royalty on blank media (CDs, DVDs) to "recoup" lost income due to pirated downloads. Seems like they are talking out of both sides of their mouths.
Any chance you could slip us a reference for this practice? It is certainly believable, but it's not marked as such in the stores here--or with online dealers--and I can't find any evidence of it in the media. It's TOTALLY possible they slipped a little charge in without telling us--French consumers are not the most well-informed bunch on the planet--and if so I'd love to learn more about it. Particularly, I'd like to know who's getting the money and how it's getting to them when I buy blank media at a giant grocery store.