French data tax could cost VideoLAN over €1 million a year and sink the VLC nonprofit
French digital tax may kill VideoLan non-profit
France's National Assembly passed an amendment backed by Socialist lawmakers that taxes data flows at €0.055 per gigabyte, a levy its supporters expect to raise roughly €10 billion. VideoLAN, the nonprofit behind VLC, says the measure would cost it more than €1 million annually — money it says it simply doesn't have, since it gives its software away for free.
So, the French socialists and Parliament members just voted for a tax they don't understand, which would cost VideoLAN more than 1 million euro per year. They are probably the most clueless politicians on Earth? And they claim they want technological sovereignty…
- Scaevolus
Paying 0.055 EUR per GB of traffic sent to French residents makes video streaming fundamentally unprofitable.
- paxy
This is the most hilarious thing I have ever read. Part of me wants this law to go into effect just to watch an entire country send itself back to 1988 to try and compy with it.
Summary of n°I-1358:
- It's a tax on internet "content", but they haven't defined what that means exactly, so by default it would apply to all internet traffic.
- Bytes delivered to French users by ISPs are taxed (but not user uploads).
- ISPs are responsible for tracking exactly where every GB originates from and will have to report the names to the government.
- The "content provider" then has to pay 0.055 EUR per GB that they sent.
- No explanation for how user-to-user traffic is handled. No explanation for what ISP -> user means (e.g. does P2P count)? No details on how ISPs will track the upstream source. About a million other similar questions are unanswered.
- The amendment was adopted today, and the assembly will vote on it as part of their full budget (but there are still many stages left before it can become law). Even by government standards this is way too idiotic to actually come into effect.
- eclipticplane
Wait, why is VideoLan hit by this? Do they stream content themselves?
- jszymborski
This is an exceedingly dumb tax. A more reasonable tax would be one for storing user data. That would make PII a liability, not something you hold on to forever in hopes of selling to some scammy third party when you fold.
- PowerElectronix
They will tax everyone for everything before they even contemplate controlling their spending.