[pp.int.general] cultural flatrate: PP position?

[Christian]

Reinier Bakels wrote:
>> Why should such a system be tax-based? If we add 6% to the price of the
>> internet access with the reason, that this money is taken to pay right
>> holders, then the money should be given to them.
> 
> My argument is that a flatrate system *by nature* is A KIND OF tax
> system. 

Ok.

> The essence is that there is a payment obligation regardless
> whether there is a benefit. Another similarity with taxes is that the
> spending (redistribution) of the money requires policy decisions: it is
> not just a matter of "accounting".

Ok.

> In my perception it serves a purpose to acknowledge that flatrate
> systems essentially are taxation systems. They should be subject to
> political scrutiny, recognising that the purpose is not just $$$$$ for
> record companies but (perhaps primarily) acess to culture.

I think in most countries such systems exist already and they are
established to allow private copies and to get money to the creatives.
If you share "culture", culture will also retrieve money. But I could
also live with the fact, that some amount of the tax will be spend for
(educational) cultural projects.


Christian