Taxes on hard drives

[Sampo Syreeni]

On Sat, 17 Feb 2001, Tim May wrote:

>Don't assume that because you don't have some of the same laws we in
>these united states have is because you have "more freedom."

That *so* wasn't the idea.

>As for copying CDs and the Home Recording Act, let me hasten to add
>that there has _never_ been a prosecution of an individual for
>copying CDs, before or after the Home Recording Act.

Precisely as in the case of copyright law and its rules for public playback.
Those permit some pretty wild interpretations, if stretched to their limit.
The record companies simply aren't stupid enough to try. The bad-will
aroused by such a move would be far too bad a PR blunder. And if they ever
wanted to harrass people via such laws, they would do much what was done
during the DeCSS trial - prosecute on the letter of the law, speak to the
public about their favorite view-of-the-day of its spirit.

>I was merely noting that when the kleptocrats formulated their new
>"Home Recording Act," the new shakedown tax came with a proviso that
>made such a prosecution impossible even in principle.

Which is good, considering that dormant law often doesn't stay that way. I'm
just worried that if they pass some AHRA type deal over here, what will not
be copied is this single acceptable part.

>Finland and France and all of the other European "havens of freedom"
>(yuck yuck) will eventually figure out what these united states and
>their fascist rulers figured out decades earlier.

If I really thought of Finland as the pinnacle of liberal achievement, I
would not be subscribed to this list. Unlearning takes some time, see.

Sampo Syreeni <decoy at iki.fi>, aka decoy, student/math/Helsinki university