more on EU to tax e-mail, text messages?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: May 27, 2006 11:52:17 AM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: lauren () vortex com
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 () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
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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