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The story
The French government is reportedly considering a new tax on internet data traffic, sparking discussion on the German-language forum Lemmy c/dach. Under the proposal, a tax of 5.5 cents would be levied for every gigabyte downloaded. The thread drew particular attention to the fact that VideoLAN, the non-profit behind the free video player VLC, has already pushed back hard against the plan, as well as concrete calculations of just how much tax downloading a huge game would rack up — fueling a broader debate over the fairness of the tax and comparisons with electricity costs.
French government considering internet tax: 5.5 cents per gigabyte
Source: heise.de / Original article here
What people said
€12 is about what I'd be willing to pay for the game itself. That shouldn't be the price of a single download. And on top of that there's the electricity cost too (about €0.30 for a 200W PC running 5 hours at 100Mbps).
I'm not that big a GTA fan myself, but this issue really has nothing to do with the game's content.
Do they really want to go after outfits like that?
People love to blame the Middle Ages for stuff like this, same as with witch trials, but that was actually an early modern thing ([beard tax](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartsteuer)).
If there's oversupply, I want to get paid for what I downloaded.
I can already picture it: you try to check Lemmy real quick, it won't load, and all you get is a 'back in 5 minutes' sign instead. 😐
Let's hope your PC doesn't actually draw 200W just for downloading.
Maybe that's a bit of an overestimate. Electricity costs are pretty small compared to the tax anyway.
Background and key points of this discussion
France’s proposal aims to secure new tax revenue by charging based on data volume, but it has sparked backlash because the tax could hit not just major video streaming services but also non-commercial, open-source software like VideoLAN, the non-profit behind VLC. The thread raised plenty of practical points — whether drawing the line at download volume makes sense, comparisons with existing costs like electricity, and whether pricing should vary by peak hours — but what stood out most was the interest in concrete calculations of just how much extra tax would get tacked onto downloading large games.
*This article is a translated excerpt from the thread “Frankreich plant Internetsteuer: 5,5 Cent pro Gigabyte” on the overseas forum Lemmy c/dach, translated and edited by our team. Our site takes responsibility for the translation.
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