In France, as in some other European countries, the government decided to apply a tax of all storing media in order to compensate lost of revenues due to piracy. Indeed, they simply think that consumers will purchase CD/DVD/HD to save musics and videos illegally downloaded from P2P networks. Such limited and simplified vision is supported by the fact that one of the music giant, Universal, is a French company, with an active lobbying activities on French politicians for now years.
So, the dedicated commission had to define the cost of the tax for BD media, and decided it will be 3.10 € (Tax not included) for 25 GB disc, and 6.20 € for 50 GB disc. Such decision will simply push French consumers to purchase their storage media from other EU countries where such taxes do not exist, such as Germany. Some German websites even offer access in French to their online store to help French-speaking consumers to feel more comfortable. With such decision, our government will not really help the French e-business, bad decision when all analysts think it is one of the driving force to go through the economic slow-down...
Only some executives at Universal or/and other music/video companies might be celebrating this victory around a bottle of Champagne. At least the latest is produced in France...
