The French government has submitted a new law to tax for the Internet. A few weeks ago, a meeting about the future of digital was held in Paris where Eric Besson, “secrétaire d’Etat chargé de la prospective, de l’évaluation des politiques publiques et du développement de l’économie numérique” (love his job title), claimed his willingness to see France as one of the major country digital wise.
However after this meeting, the French assembly is actually debating whether or not they should tax the Internet, including collaborative sites.
Two main reasons for this: the tax would replace lost revenue from the new ban on commercials on prime-time television and would also solve piracy problems in their eyes.
This law shows that the French government doesn’t make any distinction between TV and the Internet. They only see the Internet as a multiple channels medium. By doing so they totally miss the point about business models. The Internet is much more than a ‘medium’ for entertainment and this tax will dissuade digital entrepreneurs from creating businesses in France.
I am now curious to see what the next steps are going to be. Let’s hope that the French assembly hasn’t lost its common sense.
Because the internet is so many different types of things, I find it hard to see how they could implement such a tax.
That is so ridiculous… I haven’t been following so much what’s happening in France these days so thanks for the info! They have been talking about that in the past though, I think.
They have indeed, well now they are doing more than talking and for once this is worrying!