The French government is considering levying a tax on the advertising revenues of Google and other internet portals, in the latest sign of a European backlash against the activities of the US internet search group.
President Nicolas Sarkozy instructed his finance ministry to examine the merits of a tax in response to complaints from the French media that Google and other sites are generating advertising income using their news and other content. He also called for an inquiry by French competition authorities into a possible “abuse of dominant position” in the advertising business of big internet sites.
Mr Sarkozy commented after the publication of an independent report for the French culture ministry that proposed a tax on Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other sites, to help fund initiatives for writers, musicians and publishers to make money from the web.
If Google is based in another country, how could they possibly enforce that?
They are French. They specialize in supporting dominant regimes. What do they mean bucking their own history? But, since they are French, they will back off when the going gets rough or the Maginot line is breached by an end run. History and all that.
English is the new Lingua Franca much to the irritation of the French.
A quote attributed to Norman Schwartzkopf in Desert Storm in Kuwait, when the French didn’t join the Coalition is, “Going to war without the French is like going into battle without an accordion.” I don’t know if the attribution to him is correct or mythical.
#4: I think it was ‘deer hunting without an accordion’.
I had heard the quote incorrectly (or remembered it incorrectly). Thanks for the clarification #5. It seems to have been correctly attributed, if the hits on Google are to be trusted (which is, no doubt, fraught w/some risk).