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Dutch Pass iPod Tax
An anonymous reader writes "The Register is reporting that in a few short months a proposal to tax all MP3 players in the Netherlands will become law. The levy taxes 3.28 euros ($4.30 US) for every gigabyte of capacity. This means a 60GB iPod Photo will be hit for an additional 196 euros ($258), all of it going to the record industry's copyright collection agencies. And they call file sharers thieves?"
you've spend more than 25.000 euros om music, the extra 200 euros won't matter all that much. Seems to me that the people who need 60 gb for 'their' music and whine about 200 euros, are a bunch of freeloaders.
That said I really hate those kinds of taxes (I live in the Netherlands). For every (DV/C)D+-R(W) I buy, I have to pay taxes that go directly to the BUMA/STEMRA (dutch RIAA equivalent) even if I never use those blancs for music. They are almost forcing me to download music from the internet to get my moneys worth.
I expect that when the baby boomers and to a lesser extent the Gen Xers die/retire and the younger generation, who grew up taking things like mp3's and p2p's for granted, gain control of this world this type of bullshit will stop. Because the only reason i can see this shit being made law is that the angry old white men either cant or dont want to understand the implications of making such retarded laws. This doesnt effect them cos they dont know what "jigbite or an eemale is and if (they) did they sure as hell wouldnt want listen to that crap (we) call music on it anyways" (yeeharr! ** lets off a couple of rounds from his pearl and ivory handled six shooters his grandpappy killed all the help with ny on sixnfour ago**)
or perhaps im just prejudice against these old bastards that are doing everything they can to ruin this planet.
serenity now!
Oh, and it's either The Netherlands (English) or Nederland (Dutch). :) ...or Neverland (Michael Jackson).
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
How can you possibly blame the US for this? Yes, the RIAA is a US organization, but we, for the most part, don't tax our way out of problems in the US.
And the "sin taxes" that we do have in the US yield incredible black markets (cigarettes)... but at least these taxes go toward the public good (supposedly).
This tax is just blatently socialist. We have the government at large acting on behalf of a single industry with a compulsory tax. Insane.