France Considers 'Pirate Tax' For Online Ads

angry tapir writes "A report commissioned by the French Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, urges the introduction of a tax on online advertising such as that carried by Google, which would be used to pay the creators of artistic and other works that lose out to online piracy."

Comments

Re:still not enough

[interkin3tic]

Exceptions should be made for the politicians and their supporters though, because those crazy laws don't apply to them.

Re:still not enough

[VValdo]

But c'mon, that's in France. Such a thing would never happen in the US, would it?

W

Re:The old Motto:

[ShakaUVM]

>>The question is: would that legalize downloading / Sharing since the artists are supposed to get payed?

Of course not.

And would artists actually see any of this money?

Of course not.

Plus will be censored on const./EU grounds

[Nicolas MONNET]

Most of the measures they want to implement are simply unconstitutional.

Re:Plus will be censored on const./EU grounds

[Totenglocke]

Given how many times France has changed their Constitution, I wouldn't be surprised if they just wrote a new one making all of the measures legal.

Re:still not enough

[RobVB]

So the only way to have cheap blank CD in france is to get it from UK or germany. ( without declaring it of course )

There's no need to declare anything.

Wikipedia:

Article 30 TFEU prohibits member states from levying any duties on goods crossing a border, both goods produced within the EU and those produced outside. Once a good has been imported into the EU from a third country and the appropriate customs duty paid, Article 29 TFEU dictates that it shall then be considered to be in free circulation between the member states.

It is perfectly legal to circumvent national taxes by buying goods in another European country. Many people in Belgium buy their electronics in Germany because the VAT is lower there.