<div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Jan 3, 2011 at 1:07 AM, Basil Chupin <<a href="mailto:blchupin@iinet.net.au">blchupin@iinet.net.au</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"> <div text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> THE GLORIOUS FRENCH REPUBLIC seems set to kowtow to Microsoft and levy a tax on every tablet in the land that doesn't run the Windows operating system. For a while now France has taxed MP3 players after surrendering to demands from the movie and film cartels that it make all of its citizens pay for those few who download media content. Now the French politicians have worked out that they can get even more dosh if they extend the tax to include tablets. After all, most of them are just big phones and MP3 players, they think. However since the legislation does not cover computers they have to define what it is that makes a computer different from the devices they want to tax. According to the <a href="http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.numerama.com/magazine/17691-taxe-copie-privee-sur-tablettes-archos-pourrait-attaquer-au-conseil-d-etat.html" target="_blank">French magazine Numerama</a> they have decided that a device is only a computer when it runs Microsoft Windows. If it runs Linux or a Mac OS then it must be just an MP3 player that's being operated by someone who is a 'pirate' and therefore needs to be taxed. <a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1934443/french-politicians-tax-tablets-running-windows" target="_blank">http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1934443/french-politicians-tax-tablets-running-windows</a> </div></blockquote></div> Attention all-- I can't help but get the impression that French legislators and M$ lobbyists are joined at the hip. I could be wrong, of course..... --N.B. -- Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments. See <a href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html" target="_blank">http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html</a>