In comp.os.linux.advocacy, [H]omer
<spam@xxxxxxx>
wrote
on Thu, 10 Aug 2006 08:25:54 +0100
<5l3rq3-sgh.ln1@xxxxxxxxxx>:
> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> __/ [ Roy Schestowitz ] on Thursday 10 August 2006 07:43 \__
>>
>>> Senator calls for tax on Open Source software.
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>> | US senator Robert Cash wants to attack the problem of declining revenues
>>> | due to a form of tax evasion based on the use of 'Free Software' by
>>> | instituting an Equivalence Tax - taxing free software at the same levels
>>> | as its more expensive proprietary cousins.
>>> `----
>>>
>>> http://www.danaquarium.com/article.php?story=20050809092207718
>>
>> Update: this might be a hoax. People say that there is no senator that goes
>> by the name Robert Cash, but I only realised it after I had posted the OP.
>
> Yeah exactly ... 17.5% of zero is ....?
>
Depends on how the metric is done. A contemporary Windows
OS installation will set one back at most $300 or so, and
that's including a very basic editor. Many Linux distros
contain OpenOffice (which is probably worth an additional
$300), and a lot of tools and games -- which could make
the entire package worth a whopping $2000, or even more,
for tax assessment purposes.
And then there's the distribution of the source code.
It wasn't that long ago -- maybe two decaodes, if that --
that a UNIX(tm) source code license was on the order of
$20,000, if not more. Today, Linux source code can be had
for the price of the bandwidth.
Should we require everyone to pay $1,600 to their states
(8% sales tax) just for downloading the source to the
Linux kernel?
As for the esteemed Senator Cash -- I'm afraid that's way
too easily verified.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
contains the official list of all senators of the 109th
(current) Congress, and can be easily searched through.
There's a *lot* of cash, dirty money, and lobbying
interests in Congress, but there's no Senator Cash. :-)
--
#191, ewill3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Windows Vista. Because it's time to refresh your hardware. Trust us.
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