> Isn't that self-evident? If you have (say) an 8% excise on bundled
> software, then the person who downloads Linux and OpenOffice and
> bundles them into a computer doesn't pay any excise. After all, the
> tax/excise would be on the price of the software, and if the price is
> 0, so is the corresponding tax.
>
> As far as I can make out the proposal is not asking for preferential
> taxation, just a straight across-the-board tax on bundled software
> based on the cost of the software to the consumer.
exactly, and soon, when people start saying, "the software is free, am just
charging you a service fee for downloading and burning on a blank cd" it will
attract a service tax anyways. thus, we will come to a historic point in the
history of the software industry, software will move away from the concept of
a 'manufactured' good, or even a 'published' good, into the world of a
service.
even the top commercial non-free software companies wanna think of software
as a service rather than an off the shelf product.
and finally, the adoption of VAT wll make all this even simpler.
:-)
LL
>
> Regards,
>
> -- Raju
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