[KLUG Advocacy] Re: Advocacy digest, Vol 1 #146 - 1 msg

[Taz]

advocacy-request@kalamazoolinux.org wrote:

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>    1. Re: Computer Tax In Germany? (Adam Williams)
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> --__--__--
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> Message: 1
> Subject: Re: [KLUG Advocacy] Computer Tax In Germany?
> From: Adam Williams <awilliam@whitemice.org>
> To: advocacy@kalamazoolinux.org
> Date: 14 Mar 2003 12:45:58 -0500
> Reply-To: advocacy@kalamazoolinux.org
>
> >A recent Slashdot discussion mentions a German law levying a copyright
> >tax on computers to address income lost by publishers to piracy. The
> >article mentioned touches on the 3-year old law, which Germany is
> >'poised to enforce', as well as efforts by other nations to pass and
> >enforce similar statutes. Another one to watch, maybe.
> >Slashdot article:
> >http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/03/12/2024205
> >Original UPI article:
> >http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030312-120912-6894r
>
> This is just dumb.  So who estimates the cost of piracy?  The supposedly
> aggrieved?   Isn't there a fundamental problem of
> hypothesis-contrary-to-fact here?  If Joe Six Pack didn't have the
> "option" of acquiring a copy of M$-Office from his buddy, would be just
> capitulate and pay $300 for it?  Is every unlicensed copy of Windows a
> potentially licensed copy?  Who knows.  Not to mention the presumption
> of guilt implicit in this.
>
> Now if GW had the foresight to impose a tax on all new computers sold in
> order to fund public broadband infrastructure I'd be all for that.
>

Naw, Congress would find a way to screw it up and overcharge for something
that we have already paid for so that they could get "new" taxes. Then we'd
be worse off than before.

BTW, does anybody know when SBC is getting DSL through Kalamazoo/Portage
area?

Taz

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