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UK Proposes Broadband Expansion, Plus a Music and Film Tax
Wowsers writes "First the tech illiterates in the UK government want to extend broadband internet connections to every home, whether it makes sense or not, then at the same time they propose a £20 per year (approx $29US) broadband tax which they claim will pay the record and film industries for their failed business models. Coincidence the two proposals are linked? And why should people be forced to pay for the failed film and music industries?"
we could do away with all the ISP torrent throttling / shaping, and all the frivolous lawsuits (which lets face it, we pay for anyway in terms of other taxes).
You don't need money for that. You need legislation.
Just make fair use cover p2p for personal use.
That's what Hungary does, and it works great.
Virgin Media supposedly just tried to set up a legal filesharing system for subscribers. Everything was apparently going well until the last minute, when Sony & Universal decided they liked everything about the plan except the actual 'sharing files' aspect:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/23/virgin_puts_legal_p2p_on_ice
This £20/year tax isn't going to suddenly make it legal to engage in filesharing - it'll just pay for a government department (or, more likely, a quango) to prosecute you for doing so.
So not only is it still illegal to share files, you're also paying for the privilege of being prosecuted for it.