World: r3wp

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http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1934443/french-politicians-tax-tablets-running-windows

French politicians want to tax tablets for not running Windows

Is this legal?

They can probably make it legal.

btw.. what does it meams "French politicians"? I don't believe that 
all of them.

I think it is against the competition law.

It takes 1-2 uninformed politicians to make headlines, so it may 
not be as bad as it seems, but it's seems the desire for categorizing 
and quantifying software through law making won't end any time soon.

I don't get why they exclude "computers" from the piracy tax. Most 
pirates use computers running Windows, same as most computer users.

Do not look for logical reason, they simply are politicians, who 
search for any pretext to increase taxes

Isn't this tax supposed to compensate musicians?

It is

On the surface, yes. Deeper down, most are not compensated.

But the stupidity lies in  what they think is a computer is. 
- An engine which runs windows

When it comes at stupidity, our politicians are not half way.
French touch !

I really don't mind that tax in principle, but only if it works to 
compensate musicians, not beaurocrats. And includes the computers 
as well, or at least any device for which the MP3 patents have been 
paid.

why don't they just tax everyone and you can get a tax rebate if 
you can prove you're deaf and blind ?

face it, you're only got one pair of those sense organs, and it doesn't 
seem to be fair to be taxed twice if you own two mp3 players

Or, the french govt could use profiling ... and tax those who fit 
the profile

The tax is related to the size of the memory storage.
Every device with memory could be taxed, it's the idea.

time for another revolution ... storm the bastille

Like Brian said, the tax principle is not the real problem. 

The problem is that the final cost becomes way too large for some 
devices.
Tax added on already existing  taxes.

remove copyright on music .. and get musicians to get a grant from 
general taxation

make them servants of the state :)

It's simply crazy to tax devices

In the past, everyone here had to pay for a TV license ... and we 
had these vans patrolling the streets trying to pick up unlicensed 
TV sets

We still have it here

Now the broadcasters get their fees from advertizing

What??  still pay tv license fees?

yeah and those who can receive TV via internet pay it as well

No Freeview digital broadcasts ?

What about satellites?

Well, you must live in a very repressive state!!

We have public and private networks, We pay tax because of the public 
ones.

We have that here too and the fee is climbing every year and is the 
same amount for students and billionaires. The rule is that as soon 
as you have a device that can receive radio or TV signals (doesn't 
matter if you can actually watch TV or hear radio), you have to pay. 
Also our internet connections are taxed this way. If you have more 
than a 256 kbit connection, you have to pay.

OMG

How pitiful

out public networks were privatised

out = our

not a function of govt to run tv stations

I'd rather that we had to pay this as an actual tax, so no money 
would be spent on controlling whether we had a TV, but it's done 
as a separate fee that you can elect not to pay, once you prove that 
you don't have a TV, radio, internet connection or access to any 
of that from your home.

so cellphones are taxed for tv, radio and internet?

it's not a tax for internet access, but a tax for the ability to 
access webstreams of national TV.

I suspect your countries have large bureaucracies

anyone are taxed, even businesses and also if you run an internet 
connection to a bikeshed for a webcam.

Denmark has the world's largest bureaucracy with close to, around 
30-40% of the working population being publicly employed (don't know 
the exact figure).

Why are your cartoonists drawing pictures of Mohammed when there's 
a lot more wrong with your own country!!

Honestly I prefer to live in countries like Denmark or France instead 
of USA or England. 

You feel the difference when you lost your employment or have a big 
decease.

Mohammed drawings is really a small problem. There are some things 
we like very much, like having free hospitals. What we don't like 
so much is that the public sector is growing in the wrong way. It's 
adding personnel for doing controls, paperwork, managing silly rules 
and making sure people uphold stupid laws, rather than increasing 
productivity. If it did, it would be OK. It's really about what we 
get for our tax money, and it's not enough. Our government is trying 
to control us into the ground.

if 50% of the country works for the govt, of course it makes sense 
to increase that as it increases your vote

what political party would be elected on a platform to reduce the 
size of govt when everyone works for the govt?