[nycbug-talk] taxing free software

[Bob Ippolito]

On Jan 31, 2005, at 10:34, G. Rosamond wrote:

> Had a long discussion about open source software in Poland with a 
> Polish network admin.
>
> Apparently, the Polish government levies massive taxes on the use of 
> free software.
>
> It's done in this manner:
>
> the tax is 22% on software. . . So you install Sendmail or some MTA, 
> and it's free.  How does the government determine what the 22% is 
> based on?  By a similar product like MS Exchange.  So if Exchange 
> costs $1000, you have to pay the government $220 for using a free MTA.
>
> Anybody heard of this before?  It seems completely ridiculous.  Why 
> not tax tap water at the rate of the cost of a Pepsi. . .?

Well, it should be easy to get around with BSD licensed software.  
SImply make a cheap non-free fork whenever you need it :)

No, I have never heard of such a thing before..

-bob