Industry rallies against 'stupid' French laws

In an article in French newspaper Le Figaro, Tasca said the proposed tax on hard disk drives will raise funds in place of royalty fees. She claimed the emergence of new technologies undermines artists earnings, stating there is no business model for culture unless artists are paid.

France would be the second European country to tax hard disk drives, with Germany currently trying to pass a tax of E30 (£19.20) per PC.

However, the French IT industry is rallying to try and stop the proposals.

Alan Roult, general secretary at HP and IT industry representative for the French trade commission, said the levy is "absolutely unacceptable." He added: "The minister has taken a very aggressive position by threatening to tax hard disk drives. It is a tax absolutely without justification and for the time being is purely speculative. We will block the proposal for professionals."

Roult criticised the government for failing to make a distinction between professional and consumer end users.

"Companies use PCs as production tools - no one wastes time pirating. In HP France we have 5,000 PCs and each one would be taxed. The cost would be huge. It is very important to exclude professionals from this tax. For the home market it is up to the copyright owners to demonstrate proof of the percentage of consumer pirating."

Steven Vincienne, finance director at Fujitsu Siemens France, claims the French government may also be contravening EU law.

He said: "It is stupid of the French government to want to introduce a local law before it is a European Commission regulation. This may not be in accordance with EC regulations. Once again the end user is being punished and it is totally stupid to make no clear distinction between professional and consumer."

If the proposals prove successful French end users could end up paying between FFr500 (£48) and FFr1000 (£96) per PC and Vincienne warned this will have a devastating affect on the sales of PCs.

However, a spokesman for the French trade organisation Syndicat du l'industrie de technologie et l'information (SITI) predicted the law could be obsolete within a few years.

He said: "We are against this proposed law but the IT industry will have found a technology to avoid pirating by the time it is implemented."