[pp.int.general] [Cafe] levies

[Amelia Andersdotter]

On 24/03/2008, Reinier Bakels <r.bakels at planet.nl> wrote:
> > Fred von Lohmann has updated the EFF Voluntary Collective Licensing paper:
>  >
>  > Monetizing File-Sharing: Collective Licensing Good, ISP Tax Bad
>  > http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2008/03/monetizing-file-sharing-collective-licensing-good-isp-tax-bad
>  >
>  > Better than levies?
>  >
>  Perhaps in the US where people are used to pay gratuities in restaurants
>  etc. VOLUNTARILY such a system may work. The Dutch on the other hand are
>  known to be tight and never pay if not absolutely mandatory (and perhaps not
>  even in that case). The saying goes that copper wire was invented by two
>  Dutch fighting over a cent.
>

The way I was told, it was two Scottish people fighting over a penny ;)

In Sweden, the fee system (or any levy/tax-system for that matter) has
been criticized solely for the percentage of fee that'd go to the porn
industry.

>  If anything should be voluntarily, it should be the (direct) funding of
>  artists. A modern day mecenate. If copyright is there to foster (artistic)
>  culture in the true sense, it is fundamentally wrong to accept a market
>  economy as the ultimate judgement. Economic value and cultural value have no
>  relationship whatsoever. Yes, that creates an dependence from subjective,
>  personal judgements of sponsors. But that is always better than a scheme
>  based on the premise that who is making most money is culturally most
>  valuable - a preposterous thought.
>

(Direct) funding has always been voluntary. However, if we accept the
premise that cultural work is something that should and ought to be a
profession for some we also must accept that it's part of the economy.

If something is part of the economy it has to adjust to the premises
of that same economy and the premises today are that, as Rasmus
Fleischer put it in a Swedish radio interview Saturday: "Things that
can be digitalised will be accessible for free. That's just how it
is." (http://www.sr.se/laddahem/podradio/SR_p1_medierna_080322120013.mp3
(Swedish))

If the state should take a more active part in the relation between
economy and culture, it would probably be better to tax things other
than broadband, like carbon dioxide emissions or something. Taxes in
general are usually best used to limit consumption that's less good
for society, and shouldn't punish a natural development of the market.

/Amelia Andersdotter