In Germany there has been such a Blank Tape Tax for over 50 years, as our constitutional court ruled in favor of privacy. Back then the music industry wanted every tape-recorder registered in order to control copying, the court ruled that this was against private rights and therefore a levy on blank tapes was introduced. Sadly this tax is not extended onto the internet, so file sharing is not covered by a levy in opposite to private copying of CDs or tapes.
