France : Taxes for video and mp3 playing capacity

[Steven Le Roux]

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008 10:00:58 -0500, Colan Schwartz <colan at openject.com> wrote:
> 
> I definitely don't think FIC (or now Openmoko) should include the cost
> (if there is one) of the licence to play MP3s.  I don't want to pay
> that, and I don't think anyone else should either.  I'm happy with just
> Ogg and FLAC files.  Maybe an MP3 library can be downloaded separately,
> like the way most Linux distributions handle DVD playing.
> 
> If you want to pay for MP3s, don't make me pay for it as well! ;)

Yes I understand what you mean. But, to them, mp3 means audio... and I presume all audio playing habilities. It's not about a codec. We could think about reading only mid files and block all other files... just during the shipping and the user enable it easyly but the easier way is to provide any player on repository but not out of box.

Before to know how to do it... Does it make sense for some other than me ? for the Openmoko team ? the marketing team ?
> 
> And I really like that speeding ticket analogy.  This tax that assumes
> guilt is insane.  I don't understand how modern democratic justice
> systems can tolerate it.

I repeat, this taxe doesn't exit as counterbalancing the illegal use of audio files. It's more like a compensation for private copy. (This is still incoherent because they are taxing a potential use, but not a real usage... I mean I could never hear their music... watch their movies etc...)

> -c.
> --
> Colan Schwartz
> Internet Consultant  |  Openject Consulting  |  http://www.openject.com/
> 


-- 
Steven Le Roux
steven at le-roux.info
xmpp:steven at jabber.fr