[IP] more on EU to tax e-mail, text messages?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: May 27, 2006 11:52:17 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Cc: lauren@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] EU to tax e-mail, text messages?
Dave,
The technical complexities of actually implementing such taxes are
interesting. Some points to consider:
- Who gets charged for text/SMS messages? The receiver? The
sender? Note that such messages can be generated from a myriad
of sources, including e-mail gateways, Web forms, and all sorts
of other mechanisms. This suggests that the text/SMS message
receiver is the one constant that might likely be a tax target in
such cases.
- Much the same question applies to e-mail, but with additional
complicating factors. While ISPs can tally simple messages that
pass through their servers, what about all of the entities running
their own SMTP servers and passing e-mail directly from point to
point? How will they be dealt with? What about e-mail generated
by forms, programs, and Web-based notification and other
services? Here's a fun one: who pays the tax for spam e-mail?
The true sender is often unknown and the receiver didn't want the
e-mail in the first place. And of course, there are virtually
limitless mechanisms possible to pass e-mail messages between
sites in ways that wouldn't look like e-mail at all, if individual
entities wished to bypass the taxing regime.
Taxing text/SMS messages may be somewhat practical, but trying to do
the same with e-mail will open a Pandora's box of problems.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@xxxxxxxxxx or lauren@xxxxxxxx
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, IOIC
- International Open Internet Coalition - http://www.ioic.net
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
DayThink: http://daythink.vortex.com
- - -
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6077464.html?tag=zdnn.alert
European Union lawmakers are investigating a proposed tax on e-mails
and mobile phone text messages as a way to fund the 25-member bloc in
the future.
A European Parliament working group is reviewing the idea, tabled by
Alain Lamassoure, a prominent French MEP and member of the center-
right European People's Party, the assembly's largest group.
Lamassoure, a member of Jacques Chirac's UMP party, is proposing to
add a tax of about 1.5 cents on text or SMS messages and a 0.00001
cent levy on every e-mail sent.
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