Hacker News Reader

Comment by howdydoo | Hacker News Reader

They should also get a royalty on cameras, because someone might take a photo of copyrighted cover art. Oh, and also a royalty on pens and paper, because someone might use them to write down copyrighted lyrics

View on HN

I believe than in Portugal one pays a tax with every hdd or any device that might be used to ilegally store copyrighted content. So I pay a tax for the eventuality of doing the thing I cannot legally do but at the same time if I already paid for it how can it still be ilegal?

Pretty much all over Europe but it's not for illegal copies: it's for legal copies as in "copy an LP you own to a cassette for use in a car" (that's the original use case).

Of course everybody knows that it's practically covering missed royalties from illegally copied content, but according to the letter of the law it isn't.

This is correct. Source: Portuguese man with a deep hatred for copyright protection institutions, motivated in large part by the introduction of that law.

Maybe impose a tax on our brains as well since it stores copyrighted data in our memories. Complete with mandatory brain chips that detect when you remember their data and charge your bank account automatically.

How much more absurd can this become?

They come after bars sometimes for hosting cover bands. True story.

In Spain they get a royalty from everything you can store data on, from hard disks to mobile phones.

Does it scale with storage size lol

It scales with price :)

It does in Italy: https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equo_compenso_in_Italia#Tariff...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy

They also do in Germany, where they are suing. It's mentioned in the article I think - they try to get the money twice.

That is called the Microsoft tax. As you pay extra for your OEM hardware even if dont plan to use Windows.

Isn't it the case that you can order from some of the more popular OEMs with Linux pre-installed, and they won't charge you the Microsoft licensing fee? I think Dell and Lenovo do this?

Maybe they do charge the Microsoft fee anyway, but I'd be a bit surprised if they didn't fix that issue.

Its still the case that if you are an OEM vendor, you need to make sure your hardware plays nice with the new versions of Windows. You better "cooperate".

Its difficult to describe all the behaviors they were engaged in.

"...The Complaint alleges that Microsoft has used its monopoly power to induce PC manufacturers to enter into anticompetitive, long-term licenses under which they must pay Microsoft not only when they sell PCs containing Microsoft's operating systems, but also when they sell PCs containing non-Microsoft operating systems..." https://www.justice.gov/atr/competitive-impact-statement-us-...

As a reminder...They lost their case "United States v. Microsoft Corp." and June 7, 2000, the court ordered a breakup of Microsoft. They would have to be broken into two separate units, one to produce the operating system, and one to produce other software components. This was overturned on appeal on what can be only described as technicalities...

The Judge said: "...Microsoft proved, time and time again, to be inaccurate, misleading, evasive, and transparently false. ... Microsoft is a company with an institutional disdain for both the truth and for rules of law that lesser entities must respect. It is also a company whose senior management is not averse to offering specious testimony to support spurious defenses to claims of its wrongdoing."

Politics changes in the US and the power of lobbying made everything to end up in a settlement that for most Microsoft has been ignoring or forgetting about.That is how much it took to make them open "some" API's

This one from the EU is one of the best overviews:

"Microsoft: A History of Anticompetitive Behavior and Consumer Harm" http://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepape...

I heard their ex-CEO is into vaccines now ;-)

They did https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_copying_levy

Reply on news.ycombinator.com