Re: [tdf-discuss] (Fwd) The French Gov. loves Microsoft

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On 1/1/2011 12:52 PM, Zaphod Feeblejocks wrote:
> Did you know that anything running Linux in France is not a
> computer? The outworking of this is a skewed market in favour of
> MS operating systems, and therefore in favour of MS applications.
> This DOES affect LibO.

[snip]

> "As a result, the government needed a way to define what devices
> qualify as computers, which led to the decision to deem a device a
> computer only if it runs Microsoft Windows. This means that, as
> far as the French government is concerned, a tablet running any
> other operating system -- including Linux, Mac OS, or Android -- is
> just a device used by pirates who need to be taxed."


As an attorney, my suspicion is that this story has something
misleading about it. What I actually suspect is that there may have
been an exemption created for Windows machines because MS may already
be paying some kind of licensing-related tax, and taxing Windows
machines would be a double-tax. There are hundreds of examples of this
in tax law throughout the world, usually related to tariffs of some
sort (i.e., the domestic manufacturers of Product X have to pay a tax
that foreign manufacturers don't, so a tax is created on Product X
that specifically exempts the domestic manufacturers).

- -- 
Steven Shelton
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