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France To Tax the Internet To Pay For Music

Posted by timothy on from the but-accordians-are-cheap dept.

bs0d3 writes "A new tax in France is aimed at ISPs. The new government tax on ISPs is to help pay for the CNM (Centre National de la Musique). Already in France there is a tax on TV, to pay for public access channels. It's similar to the tax in the United kingdom which pays for the BBC. This ISP tax will be the musical equivalent to that. President Sarkozy comments, 'Globalization is now, and the giants of the internet earn lot of money on the French market. Good for them, but they do not pay a penny in tax to France.' This all began after the music industry accused French ISPs of making billions of dollars on their backs. Now the music industry must also get their hands in their pockets."

3 of 209 comments (clear)

  1. Correction. by Z00L00K · · Score: 4, Informative

    It is not a tax to see public channels it's a license fee to own and use a TV receiver.

    This also exists in other European countries like Sweden.

    --
    If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
    1. Re:Correction. by Teun · · Score: 5, Informative
      Indeed, this is not a tax.

      Such a levy on accessing TV and radio exists in most Western European countries and it pays for the national broadcasters.
      Something that's supported by a majority of the population in the bigger countries like the UK and Germany.

      When you don't have a TV or radio you don't pay.

      But this French proposal sounds differently, you pay regardless, even when you don't listen to music over the net.
      Clearly le Président de la République is shacked up with an artist.

      --
      "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  2. Re:Oh good by Cley+Faye · · Score: 4, Informative

    That would be a logical step, right ? wrong.

    A small summary about how the french government think it can help funding music (and art in general):
    - put tax on blank media, check (but the money don't go to artist)
    - put tax on internet subscription to fund movie industry, check (search for COSIP tax, but still not a penny for artists)
    - put another tax, again on internet subscription, to fund the music industry, in progress (guess who won't get anything from this? artists)

    For those that don't know, the fact that we're paying taxes on blank media doesn't mean we can use them to copy our own stuff, and taxes on internet subscriptions doesn't mean anything for both subscribers, and people behind music/movies. Only some cash stream for a few very poor corporations...