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Austrian Blank Media Tax May Expand To Include Cloud Storage
http://gigaom.com/europe/dropbox-copyright-fee/
Just don't do business in Austria. Problem solved 
Comments
I would agree with a tax like that on any storage and on internet connections, but then the downloading of copyrighted stuff should be decriminalised. You cant have it both ways, tax at media/internet and also hunt ppl that are doing what they payed for already.
@Maounique That's a pretty genius idea actually
The legalization and taxation of marijuana is a good idea, but look how long it's taken, and how far away it still is.
The people in charge whether it's the big recording studies, or the big for-profit prison companies, want to keep the status quo, even though it's obvious it's not right/needs to be altered significantly.
Would disagree
Once you give a government a source of revenue, they will waste it and you'll never repeal it.
Actually, the money would go to the recording industry, but, of course, it will be hard to not listen to the lobbists that show their company needs more money than another, but better to put their lawyers fight each other rather than going after the little guy which cant pay anyway and build a surveillance system completely unconstitutional.
Oh the Austrian's and their funny economic models. Greedy government bastards.
Is there a tax on lawyers in Austria or are their services non taxed like many professional services here in the United States seem to be? Perhaps we need to tax legal eagles to stem their rapid reproduction and multiplication. The world doesn't need 2 billion lawyers.
If governments want a finance generating tax for their coffers, they ought to institute a Tobin tax.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobin_tax
This shouldn't be confused with a "tokin" that keep rearing it's head when legalization of pot is brought up
So dropbox pays for their servers.
The dropbox servers aren't in Austria.
You might already pay dropbox for extra space.
You also already pay the internet bill.
Now where was Austria involved? Nowhere, they rip their citizens off..
Well, how about the server tax levied in Dallas, Texas?
Anyone else dealing with their insane cowboy taxation?
It is a sight unseen tax for the luxury of having a server in a rack inside Dallas city limits. No assessment, nothing, just a big fat tax bill for making mistake of being in Dallas.
I have a 1U unit which is old and past useful life for most folks. Probably worth $100-$200. Tax nazis there want $150 tax PER YEAR for the server.