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Richard Stallman warned us about this kind of thing: he warned us and we laughed.
by Fdndjxjxr 12y ago
Richard Stallman warned us about this kind of thing: he warned us and we laughed.
- jeremysmyth 12y agoWhat did he warn us, and who laughed?
- digi_owl 12y agohttps://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
- rikkus 12y agoThis is somewhat relevant, yes, but I don't think anyone here is/was laughing. We can see the oncoming juggernaut, but there's little we can do about it.
- digi_owl 12y agoI think many more were laughing back when it was originally published. Note that it dates back to 1997.
- jeremysmyth 12y agoYes, but the cautionary tale is about content licencing and access control, and tangentially about copyright. It's a stretch to suggest it's a warning about the content of the article, which is about applying VAT differently to ebooks and physical books and nothing at all to do with access control. It's not even a warning about ebooks, which are implied but not mentioned in the cautionary tale.
- zanny 12y agoYou can easily do something about it. Do not support the business model of holding information hostage, and support those that do not (ie, buy DRM free books, and even moreso completely free as in freedom books, to support the business model)
- Oletros 12y agoI'm trying to understand what has to do the VAT class with anything Stallman has said
- venomsnake 12y agoLets say that a ruling that entitles consumers for the same right for digital book "services" as for physical would have been preferable.
- Oletros 12y agoThe ruling doesn't say anything about rights, just the type of VAT to be applied
- venomsnake 12y agoYes. But ruling in the opposite direction could be used as precedent for vendors to loosen the DRM licence crap.
- wvenable 12y agoNo this is the ruling that could be used as precedent for vendors to loosen the DRM license crap. If they want lower VAT for their products, they need to make e-books more like a good and less like a service.
- vertex-four 12y agoNo, it really couldn't. How something is taxed has little/nothing to do with what it actually is - tax people don't talk to copyright people.
- Oletros 12y agoI can't understand how can it be done.
- dragonwriter 12y agoStallman warned us that EC rules did not allow lower VAT rates for ebooks?