Slashdot Mirror
UK Government to Tax Linux?
An anonymous reader writes "The UK government is looking at introducing a tax aimed at software published under GNU GPL. It claims that because programmers do it for free, it is losing out on income tax and that commercial software companies (read Microsoft) are at a disadvantage. Some pressure group has already put up a website with more details and news site Techworld have got a quote from a Treasury spokesman saying that they're only considering it."
Worst April Fool's article ever
What is 100% of "free"?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
At least with the Microsoft tax, I get a neat holographic coaster.
"Derp de derp."
a 100% sales tax on $0 = $0. sheesh.
Real news on April 1st! Thank you! And please dear LORD no Open Source Tax!
of the April fools jokes... 5 in one day is excessive.
foo mane padme hum
What next? Sexual Enjoyment Tax??
I'd dearly love to see Forbes get suckered by this one. They've been such dorks about anything to do with Linux, it would be par for the course. It looks like they bought the Google mail story hook, line and sinker.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
This one's too scary and too possibly real to be funny.
Anyone familiar with the use of emminent domain to seize low value property and give it to private developers to turn into something worth some property taxes?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
If it's real, I'm fine with that as long as they also tax all charitable donations, community service and all forms of generousity towards others.
April Fools.
Almost got a muffled laugh out of me with that one. Keep it up and you'll have some good jokes by about, oh say, the 31st of April.
True story.
Just bundle Windows with Linux, that should shut them up about any unfair advantage, as noted April 1 (-:
What the fuck? I just got mod points and I tried to mod this post up. When I did I got a message that said it was "administratively frozen" and that users cannot moderate it.
WTF?!?!?!
Come on, enough is enough. This one is so bad that I don't even have to look at the references to know its an April Fools joke.
Is this a suprise for a country that has a pretty much across the board ~18% tax on any item or service sold? The government is obviously greedy so of course they're going to be figure out a way to tax stuff that is free- Linux, air, walking on grass, you name it. It is all fair game to these crooks.
...will be taxed for building houses for free.
As a member of the Union of Concerned Carpenters, I applaud this new policy.
The Army reading list
Sadly, this is probably one of the more plausible 'fool' stories. The UK government has had a love-affair with Microsoft for quite a few years now. Gave me a bit of a shock until I remembered the date :).
-- Help Digitise the Public Domain at DP.
The 8% sales tax comes to $55.92 per Linux installation.
Rank Presidents by th
x% of $0.00 = right...
Otherwise, its not a fair tax.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
If you like shiny plastic and psychedelic colors, I would say that your money might have been better spent on hallucinogenic drugs.
True story.
Would Europe really give up it's biggest advantage over American software companies?
I saw a little different version of this April 1 "joke" earlier today on NedLinux.nl.
is that there is no idea that is so stupid, evil, or pointless that SOMEbody SOMEwhere wouldn't think that it's a good idea. Most probably someone in the government.
Technoli
This being published today is just a coincidence. Check the BBC, it's been in process for a while. Puting things out for free is a compeditive advantage analogous to Microsoft providing free browsers when there is a commercial alternative.
Personally I welcome the tax, I think it will even out the playing field a bit and create competition.
MS could give its products away for free in the UK.
It's not like they don't overcharge in other regions to more than make up for it.
Striking fear in the authors of godawful fanfiction, I am here, appearing in darkness, Tuxedo Jack!
In my country (Poland) a few years ago they decided that they should put VAT (value added tax) on free software. They found some law that enables tax officials to reassess value of goods if they seem underpriced. They assumed value of a Linux distro to be a price (not value of course) of Windows Server and for Open Office of MS Office Pro.
Fortunately all media ridiculed this idea and they backed off.
Dammit, I hate April Fool's. I almost fell for that one. But with all the Big Brother shenanigans the Brits have been up to lately, can you blame me?
-R
As if isn't already difficult getting people to volunteer their time and efforts. Geez!
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Yeah, it might sound crazy, but I'm afraid it's just going to give people ideas.
I should do research on whether there was previously an April Fools joke about a partnership of recording industry companies gaining FBI-like powers.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
The Brits tax everything to death. That's how they got where they are today.
If they do decide to tax open source software, they should also tax other free services like religious institutions and non-profit organizations. Of course they would never do that, for all these years they've been giving special tax breaks to orgs like that. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe there should be special tax incentives to developing Free software.
Get your own Artificial Intelligence - Verbots
I hope all countries save one adopt this strategy.
That would leave the one remaining free-software country with such a HUGH software development advantage that the rest of the world would be lining up to "find out how they did it".
It figures that globalization and free-trade advocates always fuck themselves silly trying to protect corporations that *marginally* have a presence in their host country. These corporations give a rats-ass-not about the host country and do everything possible to drive living wages through the floor, cut benefits, and ship taxable income to off-shore havens that benefit NO ONE but themselves.
Sad Truth: People Deserve The Government They Vote For.
"Rocky Rococo, at your cervix!"
Not only are they taxed, but they actually cost a good chunk of change in the first place. Problem solved!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
The Brits Would Tax Your TV If They Could...oh wait...
Well, whether or not the site was an April Fools Day joke, it already got Slashdotted.
Keep your eyes to the sky.
Too bad we can't moderate the articles...
That is *sooo* clever! Did you think of this all by yourself? I've hardly ever seen a post like this here before! I mean, I've seen it for a *lot* of stories, but the way you used it on an April Fools post is genius! You are too clever! I was just reading the posts to this story, thinking *exactly* what you said and *boom*, there it is! You should be modded up a lot for this insightful yet clever post! Maybe even funny! Thank you for this little pearl of wisdom!
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
You just know that someone will take up the cause to make it for real...
---
I type this every time.
Mod me troll if you don't accept this, but com'on, the VAT??? WTF? What's next, an Air Tax for all of the oxygen Europeans use over the course of a year?
Socialism: A feeling of discontent and resentment caused by a desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
I watched this server die right in front of me. No doubt hosted on someone's sister's i386.
/. when exactly 6 people can come look before it's dead?
What's the point of making a high-larious website and posting the link to
These jokes could be funny, but most of us wouldn't know!
When I was told that Thatcher had a tax for breathing, I laughed. Then I found out the truth:
Poll Tax
This may be a funny 4/1 joke and all, but I would not be suprised if
someday this happens. If Open Source takes a big enough chunk of
enterprise, governments will begin to notice the loss of revenue.
They will then begin imposing use taxes based on profitability per seat.
What can I say, I'm a cynic.
-- "It was as if the paint factories had decided to deal direct with the art galleries." - Thursday Next
Then we should also tax the silly walks and instaurate the Ministry of Silly Walks!
That would be really nice
Oh and put a tax for looking at the ducks in Hyde Park as well
May the source be with you!
Maybe that would keep people like you who JUST DON'T GET IT from further polluting the world.
Socialism: A feeling of discontent and resentment caused by a desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
Upon receipt of this news, Bill Gates ordered every lobbyist at Microsoft to stop whatever they're doing and lobby the government for a tax on GPL software in the U.S. as well.
Obligatory Monty Python sketch:
... thingy."
Third Official: "Well most things we do for pleasure nowadays are taxed, except one."
Politician: "What do you mean?"
Third Official: "Well, er, smoking's been taxed, drinking's been taxed but not
Politician: "Good Lord, you're not suggesting we should tax... thingy?"
First Official: "Poo poo's?"
Third Official: "No."
First Official: "Thank God for that. Excuse me for a moment." (leaves)
Third Official: "No, no, no - thingy."
Second Official: "Number ones?"
Third Official: "No, thingy."
Politician: "Thingy!"
Second Official: "Ah, thingy. Well it'll certainly make chartered accountancy a much more interesting job."
Hier staat een stukje tekst.
Let's just hope that this type of tax garbage doesn't come to the US. We've already got enough problems with the DMCA, RIAA, MPAA, and Microsoft.
Well, it'd certainly make chartered accountancy a much more interesting job...
sed 's/In Soviet Russia/In NSA America/g' < yakov-smirnoff-jokes.txt
/me waves private parts in air in front of me...
Tax this, mutherf'r.
I hate aprils fools nonsense! When respectable sources of information play these ridiculous games it makes this entire day useless. Everywhere you go you have to constantly be on the defensive for these stupid pranks. If you want to play some retarded joke on a friend in private then go for it, but why must you poke holes in my daily sources of public information????
Another April Fools article. We all know that Linux is not real. You can't tax something that does not exist. Grow up people.
Michael, knock it off with all of these April Fools stories. We're getting sick of them.
What? Taco's doing it too? Uh... wake me up tomorrow.
F-r-e-e-B-S-D L-i-c-e-n-s-e, R-e-v-i-s-e-d.
A caveman dreams of being us, the incalculable power and riches. We dream of being Q, then what?
Slashdot even has some great April Fool's Banners, too. The banner for this article appears to be paid by microsoft and states:
"Linux costs are not lower than Windows"
Good one, Taco!
This is a little offtopic like many of the posts today. What better day to release a bomb on the tech community. If I were in charge of PR for a government agency or large company, I'd use April 1st to announce bad news. No one would believe it. Not that I think the UK is going to tax linux, but I wonder if anyone is sneaking in potentially bad news today in the hopes that it will be ignored as a joke.
-
Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
Microsoft "gives away" IE. Sounds like a taxable item to me. And they give away plenty of other pieces of software for various reasons. Salesforces everywhere are known for claiming that someone is getting thousands of dollars of freebees, if they only purchase this minute. Gads, I think proprietary software companies "give away" more software than open source groups.
April fools being this Stupid. An I getting older or is this year particularly Stupid? what a waste to have Mod points today! And to make matters Worse, SlashDot's accuracy typically so questionable I have no idea which to take as seriously as usual.
I haven't posted in so long, my sig is out of date.
Actually, let's start taxing people's tithes. God has enjoyed omnipotence for quite long enough; it's time for the goverment to get it's share. Assholes. Dave
Take it easy? I'll take it anyway I can get it . . .
Tax offices in some cities interpret the tax law:
/ de bian-user-polish-200203/msg00346.html
p hp 3
n g/ 1138.html
n g/ 182.html
- you get the Linux/OpenOffice package for free, but its value is comparable to MS software so your income is equal to value of equivalent MS software, and tax you on that.
- alternatively they try to get VAT on Linux as well
Also it seems there is a legislation that will make it easier to tax Linux.
links:
http://www.computerworld.pl/artykuly/12135.html - subscription required
http://lists.debian.org/debian-user-polish/2002
http://www.linuxfan.pl/dyskusje/2001.4/linstar.
http://hedera.linuxnews.pl/_news/2002/03/21/_lo
http://hedera.linuxnews.pl/_news/2001/04/27/_lo
Observe yet another masterpiece of FUD by Daniel Lyons @ Forbes.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
What will the UK value each copy at? I would say a complete distribution with software should be valued at $50,000US. So my charitable contributions are easily worth a few million.
The UK has decided to Tax performances of Shakespeare in the park. "Giving away performances of Hamlet lowers the box office revenues of England's finest theaters", Tony Blair was heard to say. "It's got to stop, this giving things away. It's anti-Ameri... uh, it's not becoming of the nation."
Elsewhere, the Queen Mum was heard to exclaim, "Taxation, taxation, taxation! My forefathers believed in it, and look what happened to them!"
In real terms, the amount of money required to create a Linux installation on any give computer is not only actual, but as well.
.
.
.
Furthermore, a tax need not be a percentage of the sales price or a percentage at all, and in this case it certainly follows what is known as a 'Flat Tax' or set dollar amount.
SCO has clearly set the tax for using Linux as $699 per seat, or your first born child - whichever comes first.
Had me for 5 whole seconds! Biatch!
By that same logic, they should be taxing everything else that comes bundled with Windows. Special assesments for notepad, solitaire, random DLL's, etc.
/bin/bash and /usr/bin/passwd. We won't even mention what Emacs is gonna cost you.
However, Linux users don't want to know what the special assesments will be for
A British Tax on Linux? Oh, the folks in Boston are not going to like the sound of that.
Go Gusties
Sorry. I misread it. I thought it was some sort of mascot-emplacement story: "UK Government to Tux Linux"
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I mean, they should keep a fair playing field. To prove the OS is more government friendly then closed sourse, I will gladly let them tax me 100% of all free work.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I guess you don't understand the concept of sarcasm, eh?
Steve Magruder, Metro Foodist
Isn't it $699 per licence?
AT&ROFLMAO
When anyone gives their time on any project, not just programming, the govt is losing precious tax dollars. We should start taxing parenting and at-home daycare centers, youth sport coaches, hospital volunteers, the adopt-a-highway groups, church groups, book clubs, and the rest. Actually, any time spent not punched in on the clock is time not paying income taxes and that should be stopped too. Watching your kids play baseball for free should also be taxed, as that is time you could have been working and the state was losing sales tax by letting you watch for free. Sounds fair to me.
Hey, leave comments about my mother out of this!
In related news, gullible SCO investors who read the article have predicted the demise of Linux and have invested heavily in SCO. Just look at the surging stock price of SCOX!
(Man I wish that was an april fools joke and that SCOX had really crashed, well there's always tomorrow)
That's cause mod points are now taxed....
You only use 2% of your DNA
These days it's getting kinda herd to tell.
...that the premise is so plausible. Government relentlessly seeks things it can tax so it can buy votes by promising people things the government can steal for them, and I can't help imagining some legislator seeing the thread and thinking "Yeah..."
Look at the date folks...
--- www.f-theocean.com
Okay, how does 10% sound?
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
In the immortal lyrics of The Beatles:
Let me tell you how it will be,
There's one for you, nineteen for me,
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
Should five per cent appear too small,
Be thankful I don't take it all,
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat,
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Taxman.
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
Don't ask me what I want it for
(Taxman Mister Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more
(Taxman Mister Heath),
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
Now my advice for those who die,
Declare the pennies on your eyes,
'Cos I'm the Taxman,
Yeah, I'm the Taxman.
And you're working for no-one but me,
Taxman.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
I fell for that april fools joke too. Here in Sweden, the authorities have in the past seriously proposed taxing things like picking berries in the forest for own consumption and heating your house with your own wood. Taxing free software would fit nicely into that logic.. /Anders
I think those advocating a 100% tax are going a bit overboard. The UK government should start with something small, like 5%. On a typical Fedora or Debian distro, that comes to nil pounds UK ($0 US), which is fairly affordable, even for out of work geeks. Starting at a reasonable rate would help people get used to the idea of the tax.
The author of the Techworld article, Maxwell Cooter, is a friend of Simon Travaglia -- see the BOFH FAQ.
Hope this puts it in perspective for the easily fooled...
Can someone post an artick today that is not an April fools joke? They don't ALL have to be jokes.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The story is a dupe, the topic is boring, the facts weren't checked. WE GET IT!!
If the software is being developed for free, somehow those people must have another source of income, such as a job for instance. If those people have jobs, how can the government possibly miss on income tax? Now let's assume those people get by *without* a job still developing software for free, same question - if there's no job in the first place, how does the government miss out on income tax?
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
This is the worst April Fool's joke I have ever heard.
Deny U.S. government to use your software by license (dis)agreement.
There you are, staring at me again.
We get taxed for everything in this place, now they want to start taxing hobbies? They are bloody riduclous, they tax cigarettes, booze, road tax, petrol tax, council tax, death tax, what is there in this country that isn't taxed?
"The UK government will announce more new taxes, including a retro-active tax to recover potential tax income lost during the 60's on free love and sex as well as a tax on air very shortly. You pay for gas, why not pay for the air that helps cars run?" according to George Needsadentist, a UK government spokesman.
Scary, huh?
What's next in addition to "air tax," "sex tax"?
A "good teeth" tax? Blonde tax? Blue eyes tax? Tax on talking or tax to move a muscle? Or a think-tax; think and be taxed.
I guess one can say that the UK govt have been smoking something they shouldn't have (or an incest/imbreeding crack can also apply).
SLAVERY!! Duh.
Britain is the country that taxes another "free" commodity, television. One is useless, the other useful, the reader will decide which is which... :)
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
We call this a barter tax. Legally you are supposed to pay taxes on anything you get for free. In other word; If you buddy helps you build a computer and the reasonable and customery charge for that service is $100, you should claim that $100 as taxable income. BTW: This isn't the worst April Fools story I have ever seen, but its close.
Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels.
Shhh!! The british government might not see it as such a joke and actually try to bring it in!
Silly rabbit
It has finally happend.. The media clampdown has begun Whitehouse.org has been busted
Seeing as how the UK government is using Linux, wouldn't it be a GPL violation for them to attach additional conditions to the use of Linux in the UK?
Don't joke about this. When politicians want to tax, they can get very creative and very strange.
Take cars. Normally the tax on the sale and title transfer for a car is based on the selling price. But suppose a parent wants to help out their child by selling them the almost-new family car for $1. Or suppose someone wants to help someone who's down for their luck by selling them an old beater for a work car for $1? Suppose they even give the car away?
If you think the tax will be on that $1, you don't live in Washington state. Here, the state tracks what a car might be worth had it sold on the open market and taxes it as if it sold at that price.
In similar fashion, the U.K. or any other country could tax Linux as if it were Windows. Many governments get particularly nasty with taxes that target businesses rather than ordinary citizens. They have less voter wrath to fear.
Be careful when you joke about the future. It might just happen.
If you're in Britain, heres what you can do...
Do whatever you can, this is outrageous.
I'm amazing. You aren't. SUCK IT
yeah... just think of all those dollars/pounds worth of software that get given away free on magazine cover disks...
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
Yes, but it only applies to programmers. It's called a Sin Tax.
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
What they're saying is that it's illegal to give your own work away--because it doesn't belong to you. Your work belongs to your government. In Newspeak, "slaves" are known as "citizens".
How are they going to work that one out? surely they don't think they are missing out on the income of all the overseas developers they work on OSS? wait wouldn't this same reason make them prevent out sourcing overseas since they are missing out on the income tax when jobs go over seas? what a crock, this is a blatent money grab.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
If you can tax free software, can you tax me for running a blog where i give out free info? What about chat forums where IT professionals give out technical support for free, should we tax that? What about a great patent idea that someone gives away for free, are you gonna tax that? When someone develops cold fusion, i'd appreciate it if i didn't have to pay through the nose for it. And we'll have to tax ppl for borrowing books from the library. See where this goes...
Whether this is a hoax or not, taxing "free" software is a bad idea. I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for. I paid for linux with hours of cursing and frustration the first half-a-dozen times i tried it. I paid for linux by figuring it out when we didn't have those nice GUI installers and making it recognise a network card when that took hours.
The world needs to wake up and figure out that everything's changed and that it needs to figure out how we all might have to re-adjust what we think in order for us to move on. What amazes me, is that M$ has all this money, yet they can't seem to compete with "free" software. You'd think with all that money their product would be better.
I propose throwing your MS boxes in the nearest body of water, and relive the boston tea party.
Brings to mind a Beetles song.
It would be downright un-American.
The Truth About Slashdot
It claims that because programmers do it for free, it is losing out on income tax and that commercial software companies (read Microsoft) are at a disadvantage.
Isn't that the whole POINT of open source?!
To be able to compete with huge corporations you must be
1. Affordable (free is good)
2. Customizable (anyone can edit it)
3. Better than the product you are competing with (any arguement there?)
This is a case of too many lobbyists and not enough people with the rocks to go against them.
But he's right about one thing: the new change of heart of Red Hat is disturbing, to say the least.
Ah well... Mandrake Linux was always the better one anyway.
--- "To pee or not to pee, that is the question." ---
cmdrtaco has gone a bit overboard today with the joke posts...
it's an April's fool joke, but if it is it's a very elaborate one. The fact that there's a pressure group's website scares me. I mean, why would Techworld go as far as that? Don't they have something better to do than registering domain names for fake April's fool websites to accompagny their fake April's fool articles?
uh oh.. you folks in UK better be careful then. I wouldnt let your kids sell leomonade on hot sunny days if you do then the UK will be missing on on taxes.
-- The box said Windows 2000 or better... so I installed Linux
You nearly had me there, Taco. This is just the sort of thing that someone like Microsoft would try to foist on a government that's repeatedly shown itself to be less than clueful about IT matters. As such, I think it's quite a good April Fool - it's only just on the wrong side of being completely plausible.
The Techworld article and the "Lose-IT" website are tantalisingly vague. One suspicious detail is that lose-it.org.uk was registered on 12 March, while the Budget was not made public until 17 March. Either the owner had inside information (not entirely impossible) or he was planning to do something for 1 April.
Our government is trying to grok the internet, so they have various official documents available online. The complete text is here, as a set of 14 PDFs. I haven't read the whole thing (what do you expect on Slashdot?!), but a search through each of them for "computer" and "software" turns up nothing that looks relevant.
Overall, then, nice try, thanks for playing, see you again next year.
Just another wannabe fantasy novelist...
"Continentals have sex. The British have hot water bottles."
Here's an English edition of the story: Poland: It's official! Tax for Free Software [2000-11-20].
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
That sucks. I guess you could have pulled the starter, making it a non running car when you sold it. Then "lost" the starter over on her front porch, and let her boyfriend (whatever) put it back on. Something like that.
Ya know, not only that but the government in general is dismally sucky. Just dismal. there's no outside limit in the amount of laws they can pass, zee-ro. It's a growth industry, the legislators and the bureaucrats and employees love it. They can do whatever they want to do, and have hired mercenaries with guns "enforce" their will on you and call it "justice". The theory is you can "vote" for change. Uh huh, that's worked swell so far, with the two carved in stone political gangs just swapping places every 2/4/6 years, and doing the same thing over and over again, ie, "staying in rule"..
In other news, the UK is also planning to put a tax on breathing. "Because air is a readily available commodity," commented a UK spokesperson, "it puts all of the fresh-air vendors at a great disadvantage. How can they be expected to make a profit selling air if people can pick it up at no cost anywhere on the street."
The spokesperson then went on to discuss the government's plans to tax gravity. "The one flaw we've found so far is that people can't opt out of it. In the grand scheme of things, however, that is really just a small detail."
Wake up - the future is arriving faster than you think.
...
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
Knowing how nutty socialist governments are, I would not have been surprised if this was a true story.
Kiss the Red Cross goodbye... And any other non-profit organization.
God forbid a man have the right to freely give his time.
Hey, by the way I took a shit for about 15 minutes today - feel free to tax me - I'd be MORE then happy to bring 10% of it by any government office and put it right in an officials hand!
A note on the record jacket of Michael Oldfield's 1973 recording Tubular Bells, makes the following claim: "In Glorius Stereophonic sound. Can also be played on mono-equipment at a pinch." This tolerance disappears, however, in another note at the bottom of the jacket. "This stereo record cannot be played on old tin boxes no matter what they are fitted with. If you are in possession of such equipment please hand it in to the nearest police station."
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Well, it's more interesting that the actual 'story'.
The GPL says that you can't apply constraints to people you distribute the software (or deriviative works thereof) to. Just using the software doesn't involve the GPL at all.
The nearest analogy is implmented a patented algorithim in GPL code. The patent holder has the right to require payment for the use of the algorithm, but the code is still GPL'd. Granted, it's messy, but all such corner cases are.
Plus, the GPL relies on the law for enforcement. Unless your a government, there is not way around that. If you _are_ a government [0], then you can change the law, and that's not a problem.
[0] Who doesn't are about things like the Berne convention.
I know that would be mean and against the spirit of the whole thing, but it's rather tempting to include a paragraph in the GPL that prohibits the use of GPL'ed software in countries where it is taxed. If the use of Linux in business is big enough, that would implicitly ensure politicians never get through with such stuff.
> You can't tax something that does not exist.
You mean like those enormous profits everyone would make if people stopped pirating music and software?
Have another look at http://www.lose-it.org.uk/
It's officially a 1/4 joke now.