The Cheat said:
OMG...They aren't pushing their laws on another country!!! They are taxing a type of product that is sold in THEIR country - MP3 players! You are totally missing the point here, buddy. If Apple didn't pay this tax, it would have an unfair advantage over all the other companies selling MP3 players in France who were paying the tax, and as a result had to raise their prices by 25 euros! And how can you say foreign companies should not be taxed!? So you think that Hondas should be exempt from sales tax, gas tax, environment tax, etc. in the US? You don't think that would affect domestic business when Honda is selling their cars tax free, while GM has to charge thousands more because it is an American company? What are you smoking?
Fact: Apple has decided to do business and make profit in France.
Fact: Apple has a subsidiary in France, Apple France.
Fact: France has passed a law that puts a 25 euro tax on ALL hard drive based MP3 players.
Fact: Apple sells a hard drive based MP3 player in France.
Fact: France (and any country for that matter) can tax any product any way it damn well pleases so long as it is done fairly and across the board.
Fact: If Apple wants to sell iPods in France, it must pay the tax.
People, they are not specifically targeting the iPod! They are taxing all MP3 players as a way to recover money they beleive is lost due to piracy. The fact that that idea is silly does not negate the Rule of Law. Anyways, do you think Apple is going to let the tax cut into their profit? Hell no! They will simply up the price 25 euros! If anything, it will only hurt the people of France, who will be hit with an even higher cost for an iPod. If it is really that unpopular, the people of France can complain to their government. It is really none of your concern!
Nice try but you got some of your facts wrong.
> Fact: Apple has decided to do business and make profit in France.
> Fact: Apple has a subsidiary in France, Apple France.
This one is obviously right since Apple France is one of their oldest foreign representations, dating back to early 80's.
> Fact: France has passed a law that puts a 25 euro tax on ALL hard drive based MP3 players.
Wrong.
The law itself date back to the mid 80's and the amount depends of various factors such as the size and the type of the media (e.g flash memories are taxed at a much higher rate per MB than mini hard-drives and CD-R).
Background info :
This law is about what is called "exception au droit d'auteur pour la copie privée" (~ exception to copyright for private copy). Think fair use.
Back in the 80's the authors/performers/producers/whatever were whining (nothing new under the sun) that the widespread usage of analog recording (VCR, various audio supports, etc) was a big threat to their revenues (we'll be starved to death, blabla, seems familiar ?
This law was passed with the purpose to give them some compensation to legal usage of analog recording by invididuals, such as multiple copies inside the same family of audio tapes, record of films aired on TV etc
Back at the end of the last century the authors representatives came to the autorities to ask for a refresh of the list of taxed medias and amounts (only analog, mostly cassettes were taxed at this time). The amount collected from taxed cassettes was falling dramatically at the time with the rising popularity of CD burners. The ministry of Culture, in charge of the matter, apointed a new commission in 2000 (as set by the law, the amounts are decided by a commission which include representatives from authors, consumers and industrials - The previous commission ended its work back in 86).
The commission is composed of 12 representatives from various authors rights organizations, 6 representatives from consumers rights organizations, 6 representatives from industrials and a president. This commission is now know as commission Brun-Buisson, after the name of its president.
The rebirth of this commission was not welcomed by consumers who pointed out a lot of problems (the fact that digital medias are general purpose not tailored for specific applications like cassettes, the composition of the commission, the background of the president chosen the ministry, opacity of the authors societies in charge of getting and distributing the money etc etc).
The president, which was supposed to act as an arbitrator, shamelessly sided with the authors representatives and the commission became the tool of the producers lobby.
The meetings of the commission are not public but it is rumored that everyone inside was knives out and shouting bad words from the beginning.
The fees are not supposed to be compensation for piracy according to the law, but Brun-Bruisson made bold comments in the medias crediting himself salvaging the poors musicians from widespread piracy effects (yes he shoud have been sacked for such comments, but it did not happen).
The fees on blank CD & DVD were set in 2001 and on hard-drives used in consumer (not computers) products in 2002.
At the same time, the brittons selling blank CD-R and DVD-R by mail order suddenly started to offer translation of their web sites in french and accept payments in euros
The money is supposed to be handed out to authors societies by the importer. If the dispute goes to court, Apple will probably loose.
Comparison (a bit outdated) of fees collected in various european countries
