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France to tax Apple, Android, and other non-Windows tablets
France, which already has a tax on blank CDs, DVDs, and hard drives, is looking to extend the private copying levy to tablets -- but only on tablets that don't run Windows.This little gem, which actually passed through the French government back in December, could increase the cost of tablets with 64GB of storage by up to 12 euros, or $16. The money, incidentally, goes to copyright associations like the RIAA and MPAA.
As to why this tax will only apply to Android, iOS and other non-Windows tablets, it all comes down to the French government's idea of what constitutes a real operating system. As it stands, smartphones are already taxed the same way in France, but laptops are not -- and as tablets fall somewhere in between, the operating system becomes the deciding factor. Android and iOS are smartphone operating systems, so they are taxed as such; Windows, on the other hand, is a PC operating system, and won't be taxed.
Ultimately, it all comes down to whether the storage space on a device will be used for playing pirated music. The crazy thing is, it's all one big assumption: you will pay your tax to the copyright holders whether you pirate music or not. Canadians, rather famously, have been paying a tax on blank CD-R since 1997 -- even if you use them for data backups, the recording industry still got a slice of the pie! What a mad world we live in.
Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsbkj216Jan 7th 2011 9:34AM
U know as long as the tax is reasonable, I don't see a prob with this. See, if we give companies like the RIAA/MPAA a cut of each device sold, they should have NO REASON to attack people for downloading and whatnot.
Just a thought
JoshJan 7th 2011 10:19AM
@bkj216
Pretty sure they are still suing people in France, though. Or at least I remember an article (likely on TorrentFreak) about it.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 7th 2011 10:20AM
@bkj216 That's the bit I could never make sense of -- we pay a tax on media that can be used for storing pirated music/movies/etc, but downloading pirated goods is still illegal.
It's like having your cake and eating it.
HugoJan 7th 2011 9:41AM
Get out of here, France!
That why I laugh out loud for the France fiasco in the last World Cup...
ragtagJan 7th 2011 9:50AM
Didn't France implement a three strikes piracy law?
They can't have you both pay a tax on devices and media, in case you use it to copy, and then arrest you for copying. It has to be either or.
BarryJan 8th 2011 6:02AM
The tax is not for pirated media, it's a tax compensating private (not pirate) copying aka a "blank media tax"; fair use, and so on. Here in Sweden we've had it since the mid 80s I think, taxing blank cassettes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, MP3 players & in a couple of months it will include external hard drives as well.
ZidaneJan 9th 2011 4:54AM
Funny thing is, you're not allowed to copy your (legitimate) BR-D, DVD or music CD while at the same time paying a tax that's supposed to compensate for private copying.
Music lobby in France is probably the worst among other industries :(