FTC Staff Discuss a Tax on Electronics To Support the News Business

Posted by timothy on Thursday June 3, 2010 @06:03AM from the now-that's-what-I-call-top-down-management dept.

dptalia links to this piece describing a staff discussion draft from the Federal Trade Commission, writing "The FTC is concerned about the death of the 'news.' Specifically newspapers. Rather than look to how old media models can be adapted to the Internet, they instead suggest taxing consumer electronics to support a huge newspaper bailout. Additionally, they suggest making facts 'proprietary' and allowing news organizations to copyright them." Note, though, "The good news in all this is that the FTC's bureaucrats try hard to recommend little. They just discuss. And much of what the agency staff ponders are political impossibilities."

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Another one for the BDSM world? by Quiet_Desperation · 2010-06-03 06:39 · Score: 0, Offtopic

100 years ago, you show someone a riding crop, and they'd think "transportation". Now a person might think "dominatrix". Well, if they're any fun, that is. Show someone a newspaper now and they think "information". Well, some think "liberal rag" or "conservative puppet", but they are definitely not any fun. Anyway, what will the people OF THE FUTURE (Wooooo!) think when shown a newspaper? Yeah, they may roll it up tight and think "dominatrix" again, but really, what if, er, um... I had a point here, but it seems to have lost track of itself.