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France's 'Culture Tax' Could Hit YouTube and Facebook
PolygamousRanchKid writes with this excerpt from BusinessWeek: "Should YouTube subsidize le cinéma français? France's audiovisual r.egulator thinks so. In a report this week, the Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) says that video-sharing websites should be subject to a tax that helps finance the production of French films and TV shows. ... Although the CSA report says that videos posted online by private individuals should not be subject to taxation, it contends that video-sharing sites increasingly have become 'professional' content providers. ... Separately, France is considering a tax on smartphones, tablets, and other devices as another source of revenue for cultural subsidies. The proposed tax would raise an estimated €86 million annually that would be used to finance the 'cultural industries' digital transition,' France's Culture Ministry said at the time."
"That's a nice video streaming business you have there, you should speak to my cousin, he runs a french language film production company, sure he can help you..."
Waiting for an amusing sig.
The purveyors of cat videos should be taxed to support the production of works more substantive than cat videos.
...you lost me at 'French culture'...
Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
If you have to subsidize it, then it ain't culture; it's history.
FTS:
The proposed tax would raise an estimated €86 million annually that would be used to finance the 'cultural industries' digital transition,' France's Culture Ministry said at the time.
If they're now thinking of a tax (which probably takes years to implement) to fund (more time to implement) the digital transition of the cultural industry, those industries are really well behind the times.
They should be well on the way by now, if not finished already, with this digital transition.
5th elements was a french film. Leon was a french film. both from luc besson. And arguably both went beyond the "shootyshooty bang bang special fx" crapfest that seem to come out of holywood. But I am probably highly biased.
There are many names you can cite
Proof is when a good french movie ls released you americans make exactly the same movie but with american actors
There has to be a way to tax those corporations.
On everything I buy in a shop, there's tax.
My income is taxed.
If a brick and mortar store makes a profit they get taxed.
If google makes a profit they get.......oh wait. If you're a multibillion corporation you don't have to pay taxes.
Some of you will say it has already started. And in some ways, it already has. However, as these 'small' little seperators wiggle their way into the legal framework, country by country, the Net is going to become a legally convulated hell for personal media, personal information, and copyright. It's pretty grey now, however this is just going to murk up the waters more.
Net neutrality was a half-assed attempt to stopgap it in the US, but the FCC, however contadictory politicized and impotent, sure as hell isn't going to consider that now! With Italys' recent win over Google, and now France's 'tax' hitting the major players, this feels all to familiar that it's just the beginning of a landslide of legislation to reign in information sharing, and to insure capitalizing from it.
Just like last time when they tried to save the french film industry from the pirates, they created a new agency to stop piracy.
After a couple of years and a for a budget of 13,7 million dollars a year, they actually had exactly 2 users convicted, 1 user slapped on the wrist and 1 user who got a fine of 150 Euros.
This will work exactly the same, not at all.
http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1483616/frances-hadopi-2-convictions-1-fine-125-million-warnings-since-2009
In more general terms, what they are saying is that successful businesses should be taxed to pay for their unsuccessful competition to catch up.
Negative moral value of force outweighs the positive value of good intentions.
...and all the adult jokes removed / replaced by teenage wee-wee poop jokes, because the latter are ok
Actually French films are rather good. But as another poster said, Americans tend to remake French films. With an example being the original French film, "Anything for Her", being played by Russell Crowe or one you should know... "True Lies". Or did you know about "The Tourist"? I am not going to espouse that French films are superior, they tend to drivel quite a bit at times. However, to say that they have no talent shows that you are ignorant on movies.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
They could just post videos on the web just like everyone else. Last time I checked its not exactly expensive to do.
If French had any talent for making movies they would pay for themselves and wouldn't need to be subsidized. Name one French movie that isn't boring and pretentious crap.
If energy companies had any talent for producing oil, they would pay for themselves and wouldn't need to be subsidized.
If... hey, this is fun, join in!
Some of the posters are saying that France produced this and that movie and Americans just ripped them off - and that somehow makes this culture tax justifiable. Well, if these movies "were" ripped off, then what you need are stronger copyright laws. The various countries have their own copyright laws that are connected with international treaties - lobby to have them strengthened. My "guess" is that while there may be a "few" movies that were "ripped off", this culture tax would try to "recover" much more than what was taken from these few movies. And what the hell does Google/youtube have to do with some American studio ripping off some French movie? These "stealing" American studios try to keep their produced content from youtube also and youtube has a good take down system. This whole episode reminds me of the blank DVD tax saga in Canada - where to support the Canadian music industry that are "negatively effected" by music piracy, the stupid government allowed a blank DVD tax where every blank DVD costs a few cents extra to go to the coffers of the Canadian music people. WTF. I don't even copy music. They tried to do the same nonsense with USB sticks - but failed.
Here the fee for owning any device with a CPU is 200 EUR/year. Owning any programmable device without paying for this "licence" is illegal and will result in a visit from the police.
What a catastrophe, Youtube and DailyMotion are supposed to pay a tax of 1% or so on the business involved in France! I'm certain, this 1% of their revenue will make the difference between going bankrupt or being the pride of capitalistic success.
Seriously, to corporations like Google or Amazon, taxes and tariffs are just regular business to be dealt with as appropriate, just like road traffic is to be dealt with when driving around the city. It really doesn't matter whether its called VAT or some other name or if the money is used as bribes for corrupt politicos - sorry lobbying money - to avoid costly laws. It's never a matter of freedom or or up about fairness. In the end only one thing count and that's how much money is left after all expenses are paid.
Seriously, this is classical French behavior. Over the years they have put various taxes on this or that to protect this or that industry. Think taxes on blank media which should go to the record companies. Not a cent to artists mind you, but I digress.
Actually, the only real way France will learn is to simple ignore them. By ignore them, I mean completely pull out of the France. No french versions of websites. No, french youtube, no French google or bing.
I wonder how long it would take for the French people to freak out for being cut off from any meaningful content?
Alternatively, for French versions of websites, you have have a "pay to enter". On youtubes page, there can be a sign saying due to the ridiculous cost of operating in France, you will need to pay 5€ per month in order to watch any videos.
The same on google and bing and yahoo. Want to search? 15 cent per search.
I say call their bluff and pull out of France. Now, if we could just get those surrender monkeys out of the EU....
There are many names you can cite
Proof is when a good french movie ls released you americans make exactly the same movie but with american actors
Hollywood not in here sindrome dates back to the early 20th century. That is one of the reasons if not the main reason why professional dubbing for cinema was never a viable industry in the US for a large part of the 20th century. And also why foreign films most of the time have had niche status relagated to film festivals. Contrast that to France, Germany, Italy or Spain who have a domestic film industry going back almost 100 years, and yet they import foreign films and dub them for their local audience. And this means we don't have to remake foreign films, we give them the original product.
True Lies sucked ass. Unless everything about it was lost in translation, you should move that from the "refutes GP's point" to "supports GP's point" column.
I'd also point out that the 20 or so Brits I know all thing the American Office is drastically superior in every way to teh Brit one. Of course, the US Being Human is utter shit. So I guess the point of this post is that True Lies sucked.
Archive.org: MAME 0.151 ROMs (November 2013) 42.8GB zip/torrent
#
that's the jingle bell
that's the jingle bell
that's the jingle bell rock!
https://archive.org/details/MAME_0.151_ROMs
https://archive.org/download/MAME_0.151_ROMs/MAME_0.151_ROMs.zip
MAME 0.151 ROMs (November 2013)
MAME (an acronym of Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) is an emulator application designed to recreate the hardware of arcade game systems in software on modern personal computers and other platforms. The intention is to preserve gaming history by preventing vintage games from being lost or forgotten. The aim of MAME is to be a reference to the inner workings of the emulated arcade machines; the ability to actually play the games is considered "a nice side effect".
This item is part of the collection: MESS and MAME
https://archive.org/details/messmame
Identifier: MAME_0.151_ROMs
Date: 2013-11
Mediatype: software
Year: 2013
Publicdate: 2013-11-23 12:59:45
Addeddate: 2013-11-23 12:59:45
Language: English
#
Internet Archive releases hundreds of classic game console ROMs
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/12/internet-archive-releases-hundreds-of-classic-game-console-roms/
Last week, there was news that, although economic growth is picking up nearly everywhere in the EU ( the 2008 crisis seems finally over ), France is lagging behind, and we hear more and more often the epithet "sick man of Europe". I studied and worked in France, hence I know that society pretty well. The problem has always seemed, to me, that the average Frenchman expects the French state to provide him with anything he needs: health, safety, a job, a pension, vacation. Add to this the curious "cultural exception" France has always demanded for itself to be made within Europe and, indeed, the entire world; add to this its isolationism, and its lack of true opening to what is now the modern world - and you have the recipe for driving an entire country to insignificance. France, indeed and as a culture, is no more.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Swimming Pool, Brotherhood of the Wolf...
Hollywood not in here sindrome dates back to the early 20th century. That is one of the reasons if not the main reason why professional dubbing for cinema was never a viable industry in the US for a large part of the 20th century. And also why foreign films most of the time have had niche status relagated to film festivals. Contrast that to France, Germany, Italy or Spain who have a domestic film industry going back almost 100 years, and yet they import foreign films and dub them for their local audience. And this means we don't have to remake foreign films, we give them the original product.
Clearly, you have missed out on the whole "Kung Fu Theatre" 1AM genre thing...
Yeah, and I hope if the French do that, Yougle's action is to simply block their site in France.
The internet should not be subject to extortion by what is these days a minor country producing little of worth outside its own borders and it's not the first time either. Search engines can be prosecuted in France if they don't block access to Nazi content (Historical memorabilia included!) and let's not forget they were the first country to ban PGP.
They want to live in the stone age, fine, let them.
How about we agree to it for French videos originated in France (not Quebec, Louisiana, or elsewhere)?
If it was uploaded from France, it's subject to the tax, otherwise it's not? If it's a French Culture Tax, then obviously, it's because of the value to the world of the French Culture, right?
People will whine about how the French government should not tax stuff to support local culture.
But any movie produced in any country larger than France (for instance US, India, China) can be paid for in the local market and then basically given away for free or as close to free as needed to kill the local production.
Add to this that the US is rabidly promoting "patriotism" which is a form of nationalism so that anything "foreign" is automatically suspect.
The various programs promoting this are ways to close the US market against "foreign influence".
(And BTW US "Patriotism" is being "Proud of being American", and unless you are a wet back Latino who on peril of his or her life crossed the border illegally than worked for many years with fear of deportation in his or her stomach and then finally get citizenship it is being proud of being born and nothing else.)
So the market is "not free and fair", and taxation is one way of offsetting the fact that it is inherently easier to make money when your market starts with 400M citizens instead of 65M.
And it is "nicer" than resort to propaganda, like forcing small children to "pledge to the flag", militarization of the society and such things.
And to finish, you can play a "fun game", look at "family oriented" blockbusters and try to read the "sub text" and what it says about your society.
Every good thing about that movie (La Totale, btw) *was* lost in the remake.
As a Brit, yes, the US Office was indeed better than the UK once. The UK one was sufficiently cringeworthy that it was a chore to watch.
But the American Coupling was vastly worse than the UK Coupling. With the same script no less. The UK Coupling was possibly the funniest series ever in any universe.
YMMV
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
"Le salaire de la peur", "le corbeau", "l'armée des ombres". There are good french movies. Unfortunately, all good french movies are old. Recent french movies are crap. It also doesn't help when americans do a shitty remake of a good old french movie ("Les diaboliques" cough cough).
I suspect it's a cultural thing. UK version of coupling was understandable to those who have experienced UK culture to significant amount. It was a very Western European show if you will.
US version tried to do the same thing and failed because it was too alien for US culture. They should have changed the script to match the local culture far more to succeed in my opinion. It's true that you can to extent sell another culture's product, but it either requires heavy and costly indoctrination (as hollywood does it) or it needs to be something special (like classic movies). It doesn't really work for fairly modern sitcom that is very much based on real life experiences, as these are different between cultures.
If French had any talent for making movies they would pay for themselves and wouldn't need to be subsidized. Name one French movie that isn't boring and pretentious crap.
Oddly there's quite a few Canadians who say the same thing about the government subsidizing movie and tv production here in Canada. Especially subsidizing things from Quebec...and it's gotten a lot more attention in the last few years, especially when large swaths of the media and publications have become anti-anglophone.
Om, nomnomnom...
"Les cites des enfant perdu" is also good.
Yeah, I had a sig once; I got bored of it.
Pretty soon they'll find a way to tax the air you breath..
"The Pentagon’s strengthening grip on Hollywood"
http://www.salon.com/2011/08/29/sirota_military_movies/
"The U.S. military's Hollywood connection"
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/21/entertainment/la-ca-military-movies-20110821
http://movieline.com/2013/02/06/military-entertainment-complex-hollywood-pentagon-relationship-battleship-zero-dark-thirty/
Operation Hollywood
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/09/operation-hollywood
A script often self corrected until the use of mil equipment works out.
The UK, Australia, Germany, France all have their funding mixes for their own culture. The US mil movie/script 'corrections' aspect is well known, has been reported for years.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Proof is when a good french movie ls released you americans make exactly the same movie but with american actors
Proof was a really good play. Never saw the movie. Oh, wait, now I see the rest of the sentence.
France become a communist butt hole.
Time to abandon it.
There is no place for business in a country of Marxism.
Let them live their 'fair' and poor^Wwealthy lives, surrounded by such worthy immigrants.
benefits 'cultural industries'
now is this before or after the film industry in France sues or has there version DCMA, against those sites it "deems" to be pirating???
Dubbing - original product. Pick one. Frankly I'd rather have subtitles than dubbing.
Forced culture. Gotta love it, but who's culture will forced upon them?
Removal of France could hit the Googleverse...
Why do people play for cultural victory, it's so boring. Everyone knows the only really satisfying way to win is by dominance!
If you have to subsidize it, then it ain't culture; it's history.
Don't bring up the US car industry her. That's mean.
Hollywood remakes of good foreign films generally _do_ lose what's good about the originals.
Taxi and Le Dîner de Cons (called The Diner Game in the US) are two good French movies that got American remakes. I've never seem the remakes but they probably suck.
Both dubbing and re-casting with native actors take away a lot of the experience. I hate the brittish and american recasts of swedish films/series for example. For dubbing, it is quite clear that people in European countries not speaking one of the big languages (German, Spanish, French, Italian, ...) are on average better in English thanks to sub titling of the original movies.
subtitles = you have to read the movie and so are not able to watch the movie.
Actually, the "subsidies" that oil companies get are mostly tax breaks that EVERY company gets. Most of the remaining "subsidies" fall into three groups: Money spent to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, tax breaks received by farmers for the fuel they use to run farm vehicles, and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance. Which of these do you want to cut?
If we are going to discuss cutting oil company "subsidies", let us discuss the specific subsidies and the relative merits, or lack there of, of those subsidies. We need to be aware of who, besides the oil companies, may benefit from these subsidies and what effect these subsidies may, or may not, have on the behavior of various organizations (including the oil companies). All too often, we have this discussion about generic "subsidies to the oil companies." We need to discuss specifics. I agree that federal spending must be reduced, but all too often when I bring up some specific program, I am told, "You can't do that" by people who turn around and say we should cut spending in the generic area which that spending is part of.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Les visiteurs (which would translate "the visitors" in English) has also been remade as "Just Visiting" in the US. Then it came back in France as "Les Visiteurs en Amerique" ("the visitors in the US" literally)
I'm hurting from Frances huge sales taxes already. People complain our companies laptop prices being too high. And the real reason is France's taxes are too high. It's not just France, but France is one of them. 20% on an already expensive item like a laptop just makes it worse. How are we suppose to make money? If we can't make money we might as well exit the market.
While this might affect youtube.fr or whatever, it can't affect the main youtube site, or one costed in Canada, which could still be french-speaking
France has at least its share of cinematic talent, but most films are mediocre with only a negative value to culture, and the losers who made them deserve to be bankrupted, not suckled by the public
Maybe it's the language that causes brain damage, because here in Canada, we have the Quebecois with that same perverse "protectionist" mentality about their language and culture.
Or maybe they just can't accept the fact that the days of empire are over, and that they no longer matter all that much on the world stage compared to when they were in their glory days.
What I do know is that protectionism and isolationism don't save anything; they just create isolated backwaters that aren't connected with the global culture and the rest of the world.
Stupidest example I can think of: In Quebec, you're supposed to yell "Quatre" on the golf course. The problem with that is "Fore" is short for "Forewarned", not "Four."
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Youtube's not a French company.
Yes they are. I guarantee you that Google (who owns YouTube) is incorporated in France and can be taxed there. The fact that the parent company is in the US is not important here. France absolutely can tax the French subsidiary of Google. There probably are taxation angles via the EU as well.
The idea that any country in the world can levy a tax on you if you're an internet company, would be crippling.
It would be if they could collect the revenue. If you don't actually do any business in France they cannot tax you even if they pass laws which try. They simply cannot collect the money.
When you have to force people to consume your culture (via taxation), perhaps your culture really isn't as important as you think it is...
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Requiem for the American Dream
"Or maybe they just can't accept the fact that the days of empire are over, and that they no longer matter all that much on the world stage compared to when they were in their glory days."
Are you talking about France or the UK? Because I know many anglos who like to cite the battle of the Plains of Abraham as a reason we should all speak white (english), and still display quite a lot of affection for that old lady who wears a flower pot on her head. All that aside, I should think the ROC has enough problems that you needn't concern yourselves with us.
The only good french movie is Leon, and as far as I know there was no remake of that.
Translation: Tax new media to subsidize old media. Sounds like vevendi has been spending more money on lobbyists lately. Very fascist.
Yeah but then Tarantino makes a weak copy and all the critics collectively shit their pants for joy.
you forgot the key thing "but not as good" :-)
But all the Canadians who work in Hollywood north aka Vancouver love it - Must piss of the Welsh though as they dont get a government subsidy for Dr Who though.
How about every Internet company moving (only on paper of course) to the Cayman Islands and thereby avoiding any tax anywhere whatsoever?
Maybe taxing a company where it operates (in stead of where it is founded) isn't such a bad idea.
Yep, Youtube and Google provide very nice things. If France tries to impose this, its half a step from Google yanking Youtube from France. Suddenly the French have 1) No Youtube, and 2) No money for their content, which was exactly were they are now. If the end game was to end Youtube in France (no more of those foreign language videos polluting la francoise), then good job sparky, ya done good. Its a kind of censorship though. Many news sites use Youtube to stream video content. Without it, France becomes more backwards w.r.t. the rest of the world. So go ahead France, take le' dump all over a good thing, and instead of watching flowers bloom, watch that thing go away. If I were running Youtube (a free service) and France tried to pull this, I know my response would be in the form of an Italian arm gesture in which one hand crosses over the chest and catches the other arm at the elbow, causing the elbow to bend and the second forearm to become vertical.
While I do agree that the UK Coupling was funny, the US version came first and was called Friends. The US version titled Coupling was Friends translated to British and then translated back to American.
Not good eat. Not good for the world. France is a worthless country that can't produce
anything. If it weren't for historical sites there isn't a single product of France that is
worth the toilet water we are forced to wear when around them.
I'd love to say this was a new idea. Taxing non-citizens to support you failing cultural pet projects. YouTube is a corporation. Tax a company, any company, all the same. For their business done in your country, not their business done outside your country. Then what your governments spends the tax money on is their business. I see no reason why Americans, Canadians or Mexicans need support cultural films in France (with respect to France, I use the term 'culture' loosely), Russia, India or Vietnam.
Of course this also speaks to the weakness of government officials in France. They want to do so much, but are afraid of their electorate, which doesn't want to spend their hard earned money on government officials pet projects. So how to get the funds? From non-electorate peoples; foreigners.
Retard.
http://www.fieldofschemes.com/2013/04/01/4822/nine-out-of-ten-economists-agree-sports-stadium-subsidies-are-dumb/
But Google did think of that. And many other global companies did as well.
Which means they set up shop (only on paper, not in real life) in a very tax-friendly country but get their revenue from the rest of the world.
Very clever, that goes without saying. But is it right, is it what-should-be-done? I think it isn't. If you play on a certain field, you should abide by the rules of that field. If you get your revenue from France, you should play by the rules of France: i.e. pay their taxes. You, as a company, are welcome to not do business there if you don't like those rules.
But you can't have the best of both worlds.
This is not a tax to promote French content. If anything, over the world youtube has done more to promote local content than any government institution, simply by being there.
BUT, it is a convenient tax to promote government institutions, stuffed with well paid bureaucrats, that as an hobby and with no prospect of return on capital, spend money on politically approved content.
One convenient riposte could be "sure, we'll pay this tax. But let's do it this way. first year, you get the money you want. The year after, promoted content should gross on the open market at least the institution funding. if it does not reach the objective, all salaries will be capped at the median wage. if that's not enough to reach parity with gross sales,wages at the institution would be proportionally cut."
Italy has both government approved TV channels, and a similar institution promoting Italian film productions. This content gets rave reviews, especially by involved parties, and it never produced anything that any foreigner (or Italian, for that matter) would remember. BUT, If I whistle some Sergio Leone soundtrack in Tibet, anyone would recall the film.
"If a boss demands loyalty, give him integrity. But if he demands integrity, give him loyalty." (John Boyd, 1927-1997)
The Surprising Reason That Oil Subsidies Persist: Even Liberals Love Them - Forbes
Example: 8 years ago we moved to a small town where no one picked up their dog crap in the park except me. The local ascetic said, "That won't do any good. No one else does that." When people saw me picking up after my dog, they started doing it too. Soon there was no dog crap in the park. There was no requirement to pick up, but people did it because it made a better park for everyone. Just because some people steal, doesn't mean everyone will join them. Most people will do the right thing because it usually makes everyone better off.
That was actually one of the sources I looked at to make sure I got my facts straight.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Robert Rapier's a pretty solid researcher in energy matters, and not the type to whitewash topics like these, which got him branded as a shill for Big Oil (he's ex Conoco-Phillips) when he began writing about peak oil. On that particular subject he's been really on the money - he envisioned what he termed "Peak Lite" back in 2006, which means no actual decline in overall supply but little in the way of actual gains and persistent high prices, which is what has actually transpired in the intervening years. This won him no favors with types who latched on to the whole peak oil subject as a pretext for imminent collapse of civilization, of course.
Anyone in their right mind who lives in Canada would say that. It's complete bullshit. And yes, Quebec is horrible and racist, bordering on nazi-like behavior. Instead of the "one true race" it's the "one true culture", although they have PLENTY of discrimination based on race. You have to be an uncle tom to get anywhere in Quebec, let me tell ya. Posting as AC because dissent is viewed that badly.
So they're still influenced by Anglo culture whether they like it or not, too funny :)
Problem solved. France is now in that elite group of evolved countries of Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, China, North Korea, Malaysia, Zimbabwe and Belarus.
Kiss Noise.
no there aren't, there are a few. There is a huge difference between enough to keep an industry solvent on its own and what there is.
granted, it may just be a result of the ridiculous convolution of tax laws that exist in France. if you dig deep enough, you'll find that it may only be uneconomical because of tons of other one off taxes that are placed on the movie business.
Nikita http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikita_(film) is another very good French film that was remade with American actors (and again as an American TV series). Of course the French damn that film maker with faint praise by saying he has a "Hollywood" style, so maybe that's not the best example.
On the other hand that director also gave us a French film shot in the English language http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lon:_The_Professional that introduced the world to Slashdot's favorite hot grits gal Natalie Portman. So maybe the French film industry isn't the best judge of quality.
I suspect it's a cultural thing. UK version of coupling was understandable to those who have experienced UK culture to significant amount. It was a very Western European show if you will.
US version tried to do the same thing and failed because it was too alien for US culture. They should have changed the script to match the local culture far more
They did change the script a lot more to match US culture, only this time they retitled it "Friends". Oh wait ... that version came first.
Look, I enjoyed the UK TV show (and am of an age to know who Britt Ekland was) but the bottom line (heh!) is that Coupling was just Friends redone with more "pervy" (as Moffat phrased it). That was tuning for UK audiences and simply not something that could be included on US networks or else Friends would already have done it.
They could take a chance, analyze their markets, find a niche, craft a workable business plan, and invest in it. Or just beg their government for money. Right. My bad.
When will people just say "Thank you France but we'll take our goodies elsewhere."
Let the Belgians and Germans get all of the benefits and leave the French out in the cold. The only way to stop this bullshit is to opt out of it and let them suffer the consequences.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I hate this tax. They tax TVs already. Just owning a TV makes you subject to pay the tax, even if you don't watch public TV. I never watch public channels - I mean, never, ever. I use my TV for Bluray, XBMC and Xbox. But I still have to pay the tax. They also tax PC monitors, because you *might* be watching public channels on them. In the past public channels used to be interesting because they were less money driven. You wouldn't have stupid reality shows or Hollywood movies (I have a Bluray player for the later), it would be more "culture" oriented, but even that is going out the window.
If you think having a movie made by Hollywood automatically makes it better, I don't think you know what cinema is. Hollywood is mostly about shock-and-awe, story be damned. I'm not saying all American movies are like this (some are amazing), but just because it's Made In America doesn't make it better. Usually they re-make it because they need to adapt to an American audience (who's not used to be 'influenced' by other cultures, what with being the dominant culture of our times, like France was 100 years ago), and also because reading is hard and people don't want subtitles (or dubbed versions).
The only good french movie *I KNOW* is Leon, and as far as I know there was no remake of that.
There, fixed for you
Of course there are only a few if you compare the number of French movies coming to the US to the number of movies released by Hollywood. Don't forget to take the number of inhabitants between both countries into account, and the fact that Hollywood also releases super-high-sfx (even if super-low-scenario) movies that sell very much.
I don't want to say that everything coming from Hollywood is pure cr@p I love US movies, I just want to compare the budgets allocated to both industries. In the US a movie is sometimes more considered as a product (how many theater tickets sold ?) than really an art.
CSA == "Superior Audiovisual Council" wtf, who made this up? Didn't strike them as sounding somwhat peculiar ? Audiovisual High Council would make more sense.
Want to destroy something? Tax it.
Actually, the "subsidies" that oil companies get are mostly tax breaks that EVERY company gets.
Sure. Which is why it says "energy" companies instead of "oil" companies, and wasn't meant as a diss against "big oil", because for all of the companies that anyone outside of Houston would know the name of, they are truly all around energy companies.
It's rather apt that you used that word, because I've never seen a French film without a metric shedload of boobs in it.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."