Dutch Tax on iPod Could Cause Outrage

[Chris]

"The Register is reporting that in a few short months a proposal to tax all MP3 players in the Netherlands will become law. The levy taxes 3.28 Euros (?2.15) for every gigabyte of capacity.

This means a 60GB iPod Photo will be hit for an additional 196 Euros (?129), all of it going to the record industry's copyright collection agencies. And they call file sharers thieves?"

source

[117]

no doubt as soon as the British authorities hear about this they'll be imposing the same but far worse, prolly summat like ?10/bit or summat

[Vlammetje]

Any Comments Vlam?

That is a lot of money on top of a normal iPod!

Don't buy iPod!


Seriously though, get your facts straight! It's not just iPods or MP3 players, it's all devices able to store digital music....... which means I can see myself not buying phones from the store anymore

If they put it in place of the regular 19% VAT though... it might turn out cheaper.... but it is of course going to be levied on top of our lovely 19% VAT so this is how it's going to be:

Step 1: Buy an MP3 player
Step 2: In the process, pay for all music you might wish to store on it
Step 3: Come home and figure you will still have to get the actual music to store on the player
Step 4: Buy the music
Step 5: Find yourself broke
Step 6: Curse the politicians who cooked this up
Step 7: Bling your playe for like 3 days
Step 8: Sell the bastid on Ebay for half the price (ex VAT and ex music charge)
Step 9: Be miserable





All we can do now is wait for the day that someone decides we need a separate tax for devices that store movies....

[vinnieza]

What is the purpose of this tax other than to take money away from music lovers? Stupid tax

[Chris]

Any Comments Vlam?

That is a lot of money on top of a normal iPod!

Don't buy iPod!


Seriously though, get your facts straight! It's not just iPods or MP3 players, it's all devices able to store digital music....... which means I can see myself not buying phones from the store anymore

Yeah I know, but i thought it had a better punch

[Vlammetje]

What is the purpose of this tax other than to take money away from music lovers? Stupid tax

Well..... it's not a tax as taxes are implemented by the government, it's more of a 'levied charge' implemented by an individual organisation. Like today for example we have to pay copyright over music we play as background music to a 'copyright fee collector's agency' who in turn pay the large music companies.

From what I understand it's going to be roughly the same, everybody who buys a device capable of playing certain digital formats pays up, regardless of whether or not they pay copyright over the individual tunes as well.

Imho it's totally unfair and just another way of cheating the honest among us out of their money

However, the only way to stop it will probably be to make the industry of digital music devices collapse... ie not buy them or at least not buy them within our own nation. If I were running a hardware store in Belgium in the border area... I'd know just what to do...

[vinnieza]

Great idea, but i can't live without my new phones

[Vlammetje]

you can buy stuff from elsewhere though the beauty of internet and a creditcard

[117]

trouble is tho all the other nations will be quick to follow suit, and we all know how much the UK likes to tax us for everything!

[Vlammetje]

Vote against EU constitution, vote tories and the 'shared European legislation' will be set back by at least a decade