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New Fee For Internet-Capable PCs In Germany

Posted by timothy on from the if-it-moves-tax-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes "German online news sites heise.de and spiegel.de has stories, that from April 2005 on a fee of about 17 to 18 EUR per month must be paid to the national broadcasters in Germany for personal computers in private households, which have possible access to the internet. The fee must not be paid, if it is already paid for a TV set. Companies are said to be obliged to pay that fee from 2007 on." Those who don't read German should make use of the Fish.

13 of 780 comments (clear)

  1. Great! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    I'm so happy to see the German broadcasters finally making money off of their value-added services.

  2. passe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    the internet is so nineties

  3. Re:How much for a one-way ticket to New Zealand? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Be careful, Peter Jackson's heavy mass will make you gravitate towards him.

    ~m

  4. Re:preemptive incrimination... by polecat_redux · · Score: 3, Funny

    -As far as I can tell, this is similar to the fee tacked onto CD burner sales

    No, it's not.

    Then please, by all means, elaborate.

  5. Re:Nothing to do with incrimination by aussie_a · · Score: 2, Funny
    A very interesting and insightful post, thankyou :) I do have one question though.
    Some time ago, the stations found out that you can watch TV on your computer even if you don't have a TV set.
    Is this feature unique to Germany? Or can people in all/most countries do this? Any links on it?
  6. Re:Nothing to do with incrimination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    The UK's TV licencing regime is roughly similar to Germany's, execept that we don't charge a fee for radios.

    Currently any device capable of receiving broadcast TV needs a licence. Since any reasonably fast PC hooked to a DSL line can do this there is argument about what is meant by "broadcast" - does it mean through the airwaves, or as an IP datastream etc. We don't require a licence yet for a TV but it would seem to be going that way.

  7. Re:preemptive incrimination... by jrockway · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, the CD-fee is one-time, but this fee sucks you dry until you smash your TV out of frustration :)

    --
    My other car is first.
  8. Uh-oh... by NewtonsLaw · · Score: 3, Funny

    Mr German government man, why are you taxing the internet?

    Shut up! Vee ask all zee kvestions!

  9. Proposal for "male tax" in Sweden?? by TakaIta · · Score: 2, Funny
    I just read an article (in Dutch) that in Sweden there is a proposal for "male tax": only males you should pay this to compensate for the male violence against women in society.

    The Dutch article is here

  10. I know how to get around this... by EmagGeek · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'll just uninstall Internet Explorer...

    oh wait... fuck...

  11. Latest News! by inmortal · · Score: 2, Funny

    Lately some representatives from the discographic industry declared that they are considering on taxing the food as "Most of the pirates eat food too".

    --
    Rimember: Jappi Pipol In Da Jaus
  12. Oblig Simpsons.. by adeyadey · · Score: 2, Funny

    Fox News anyone?

    Coming up on Fox News - Do Democrats cause Cancer?

    --
    "You lied to me! There is a Swansea!"
  13. Re:Nothing to do with incrimination by Jeremiah+Cornelius · · Score: 2, Funny

    S: You are a looney.
    C: Look, it's a bleeding pet, isn't it? I've got a license for me pet dog Eric, and I've got a license for me pet cat Eric...
    S: You don't need a license for your cat.
    C: I bleeding well do and I got one. He can't be called Eric without it--
    S: There's no such thing as a bloody cat license.
    C: Yes there is!
    S: Isn't!
    C: Is!
    S: Isn't!
    C: I bleeding got one, look! What's that then?
    S: This is a dog license with the word 'dog' crossed out and 'cat' written in in crayon.

    --
    "Flyin' in just a sweet place,
    Never been known to fail..."