In France you pay the copyright infringement tax on every hard drive / SSD / storage you purchase. But it’s still forbidden to pirate movies.

* Slaps 22TiB SMR drive * This baby can fit so many Linux ISOs on it.

It is not "copyright infringement" tax. It's called a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy and it's a rather common thing, at least in all of Europe.

Seems close enough. The article even discusses how it is "often considered a compensation for illegal file sharing". And even if it's common, that doesn't make it any less unfair. (Indeed, the longest section of the article is titled "Questions on fairness".)

It is often _confused_ with. It does not imply it is.

I read that as “Pirate” copying levy. Took a few takes to read it as “Private”.