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Spain's Link Tax Taxes Journalist's Patience
rsmiller510 writes Spain's new tax on linking to Spanish newspaper articles is ill defined and short sighted and ends up protecting a dying industry, while undermining a vibrant one. In another case of disrupted industries turning to lawmakers to solve their problems, this one makes no sense at all, especially given the state of the Spanish economy and the fact that it comes 15 years too late to even matter. From the article: "While newspapers are at least partly correct to blame the Internet for their troubles, they should recognize that their own mismanagement also played a key role. Newspapers everywhere waited much too long to take the Internet seriously, and while virtually every surviving newspaper has a website now, they almost invariably treat those sites as a necessary evil, as something separate from the news collection and delivery that they do with print."
Because of a rumor that a store had shoes, people started lining up before dawn. Just as the sun came up, an official told the people in the line, which reached around the block, "There are not enough shoes for everybody. All Jews, get out of line and go home."
The Jews leave but more people are getting into line even faster. An official comes out and says, "There are not enough shoes. Only members of the Communist Party can remain in line." The line gets a little bit shorter but it still has not moved.
Around noon, an official comes out and says, "There are not enough shoes for everybody. Only veterans of the Great Patriotic War Against Fascism remain." More people leave the line.
Around 3:00 in the afternoon, an official comes out and says, "There are not enough shoes. Only veterans who have won the Order of Lenin can remain in line." Now there are only two old men left in line.
About 6:00 in the evening the official comes out and says, "There are no shoes. Go home."
The one old man looks at the other and says, "The Jews always get the best deal."