--- begin forwarded text X-Lotus-FromDomain: BIONOMICS@INTERLIANT @ OUTBOUND From: "VitaminB"<VitaminB@bionomics.org> To: "DAILY DOSE"<DAILY_DOSE@maxager.com> Date: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 17:05:28 -0700 Subject: <<Vitamin B>>(August 1, 1997) Going their own way Mime-Version: 1.0 Vitamin B: Your Daily Dose of Bionomics August 1, 1997 Going their own way Even though Germany had signed a pledge to forget about taxing the Internet earlier this month, it seems that its parasitic bureaucracy has other ideas. A recent multimedia law in Germany has defined Internet PC's as devices that can receive audio and video, so the Gebuehreneinzugszentrale (GEZ), the collector of the TV tax in Germany, has decided that this tax applies to PC's as well. What does this mean for business? According to the GEZ, companies with 100 Internet-enabled PC's will be charged 1000 Marks (about $555), whether the PC's actually run audio or video or not. For those unfamiliar with the GEZ, this is the organization which enforces the TV tax by going into peoples homes and checking to see how many sets they own and in some areas driving around in special trucks to determine which houses receive signals. Bureaucracies, in an almost living way, seem to write their own code and respond viciously to threats to their territories. Unless the German government finds a way to limit the power of its bureaucracy, that territory will get bigger all the time. Source: _Ziff-Davis Network News_, July 30, 1997 --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/