PCs, bitte.

[Robert Hettinga]

--- begin forwarded text


X-Lotus-FromDomain: BIONOMICS at INTERLIANT @ OUTBOUND
From: "VitaminB"<VitaminB at bionomics.org>
To: "DAILY DOSE"<DAILY_DOSE at 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

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-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah at 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/