France Tells Apple To Pay Giant 'You Must Be A Pirate' Tax On iPads
from the this-again? dept
French politicians had been pushing for years to extend its infamous "you must be a pirate" copyright levy (tax) to tablets, and it appears that's now in place. Apple has been ordered to pay €5 million for all the copying supposedly going on via tablets. Apple pushed back, pointing out that there wasn't any actual evidence to support the premise that the iPad was used for copying music, but the court basically said "too bad" and "here, pay €5 million while we figure out the amount you'll actually owe:"Apple argued as follows: the decision was not based on any hard data flowing from a study of actual use and merely replicated a previous decision applicable to mobile telephones, which decision was quashed for failing to properly carve out professional use....And, yes, technically, this tax is not supposed to be on "piracy" but on "legal copies" made, but everyone knows that argument is a smokescreen. The whole point of levies has really been to try to compensate copyright owners for copies they can't directly tax. And, while Apple will have to pay up here, you can bet this will end up coming out of consumers pockets, as always happens with copyright levies, which serve to (1) make innovative technologies more expensive and (2) build a giant bureaucracy where not much money ever actually goes back to artists.
[....] However, Copie France sought an award of a provisional amount, relying not on decision #13 but rather on the general statutory principle that such compensation is due. The Court agreed with this line of reasoning, noting that such principle was enshrined in both domestic and European law. It further noted that Apple, as supplier of the equipment at issue, was indeed the party that owed the levy. The Court thus fixed the amount of the provision at €5,000,000, to be applied against the final sum to be determined for the period between February and December 2011 (and ordered that its judgment be enforceable notwithstanding any appeal).
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Filed Under: copyright, france, ipads, levy, piracy, tablets, tax
Companies: apple
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Is it something in the water?
I must say though, I'm glad they are going after Apple for this though, a smaller company would have no choice but to just accept it or take their products out of the country(which would be bad to be sure, but depending on how large the tax is might be a better choice financially), whereas Apple is big enough, and has enough money, to fight back if they want to, something I dearly hope they do, as a ruling like this hurts everyone but the parasite 'collection agencies/companies' getting the tax(because you know not a cent of it will actually end up in the hands of those who's works people are being taxed over).
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Re: Is it something in the water?
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It is also reflected in the people: I saw a recent poll where French people found the people of France to be most arrogant and least arrogant in europe. That is a huge ego, if you ask me!
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Re: Is it something in the water?
I'd say this is classic French (and it is), but none of the western governments think any different having been comprehensively bullied and brainwashed for decades by the US government on behalf of the "copyright industries".
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Stand up Apple
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GIANT? FIVE MILLION EUROS IS "GIANT" TO APPLE'S BILLIONS?
Take a loopy tour of Techdirt.com! You always end up same place!
http://techdirt.com/
Gosh, don't ya just wanna peek ahead at the next exciting re-write? -- Well, you can see Mike's queue if PAY for the privilege!
01:45:37[b-026-1]
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Re: GIANT? FIVE MILLION EUROS IS "GIANT" TO APPLE'S BILLIONS?
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Re: Re: GIANT? FIVE MILLION EUROS IS "GIANT" TO APPLE'S BILLIONS?
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Re: GIANT? FIVE MILLION EUROS IS "GIANT" TO APPLE'S BILLIONS?
Using that logic, then why should it be so bad to have statutory damages for bogus DMCA takedowns? After all, what's a $150,000 per defective DMCA notice compared to Hollywood's billions and billions?
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Re: Re: GIANT? FIVE MILLION EUROS IS "GIANT" TO APPLE'S BILLIONS?
Haven't you heard? Hollywood makes no profit at all!
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Re: GIANT? FIVE MILLION EUROS IS "GIANT" TO APPLE'S BILLIONS?
Reading the full post helps.
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Re: GIANT? FIVE MILLION EUROS IS "GIANT" TO APPLE'S BILLIONS?
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"Here's your 5 million. Effective immediately, Apple products and services will no longer be available in France. Have a nice day."
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See how well worked it out for google: newspapers, ISPs, ISPs again
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'Effective immediately, Apple products and services will no longer be available in France due to your actions, a fact that we will be sure to let all of our most rabid followers know. If you would like us, and the taxes we pay, to return to your country, a tax break of say, 10 million will be required to entice us to return.'
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The one and only problem I have with this is that Copyright France asked this of Google too. Apple just has the sense to fight back against it. It is not unreasonable to protest unnecessary taxes and in my humble legal opinion, It is the duty of all American entities and citizens to fight back against taxes that are as arbitrary as the one France wishes to impose against Apple. They not only want to impose a tax APPLE and GOOGLE for things YOU download onto YOUR iPad...they also want to tax Apple and Google because you can rip your own music to Apple and Google devices...
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"...a tax break of €10M, plus an amount we will determine later to cover the costs of pulling up stakes, then returning."
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Apple should fight this no matter what its ostensible purpose, whether to prevent piracy, supress cultural corruption or save the Tridacna clam.
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FGM : "Sacre-bleu! Apple, give us millions of monies! Piracy!"
Kid meanwhile turns to look, shrugs, and continues to download. After all, he's not the one paying the massive fine. Someone completely unrelated to him is.
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and (with apologies to other French language areas) we will be removing all French language support from all existing Apple products. If this offends you, please address your complaints to the appropriate authorities in France while we figure out the overall costs for them to purchase a clue.
While I'm anti-proprietary hardware/software in the first place, if people are dumb enough to pay for it, consequences like this should be expected.
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Who speak French??? I think not! :)
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Probably has something to do with the cold. Or penguins, one of the two.
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Faced with an angry public that can no longer enjoy what other countries have, the french government would have no choice but to concede. Sure, some companies may try to fill in the vacuum, but the public wants what the public wants, and if the French government is driving these businesses away, the people will let them know what they think. I hope those politicians have ALOT of money come election time, because they will literally have to pay people directly to vote for them.
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It's worth calling attention to it, and publicizing it, but actually doing something about such a paltry sum isn't worth doing.
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Schadenfreude
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Re: Schadenfreude
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There is an Apple store in Geneva which is pretty convenient, and the Swiss seem to be pretty cool about stuff, at least from the lack of bad news about them.
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Just recently they have decided to give 9 million Euros to help failing book retailers fight against the "destroyer of bookshops", Amazon.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jun/04/british-booksellers-seek-amazon-curb
This is as bad as pledging billions to bail out failing banks. Do politicians ever learn?
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Yep
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The Maginot Line
Those are your choices without US involvement in WWII (tardy or not).
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Re: The Maginot Line
German or German. Take your pick. Those are your choices without Russian involvement in WWII (scary or not).
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And Jean-Michel Jarre.
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Maybe....Maybe not ?
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Bizarre
Which just makes it all the more bizarre. I can't get my head around how they think charging extra for content that has already been paid for would somehow be more OK than charging for alleged piracy.
With piracy, they have a sob story that some people sympathise with. But who the hell is fine with having to pay extra for something that has already been legally purchased?
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not against Apple
As a Frenchman, I'm really sick of it and in general our politicians just don't understand the digital world. This is one more example of this sad situation.
Cheers,
Laurent
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