Tax on imported software.
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Colin Davies wrote: think you are a pack of hypocrits you ??? quick, show me one person reading this who has any effect at all on the trade policy of the US or any other country. ok. time's, up. you lose. -c
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Chris Losinger wrote: ok. time's, up. you lose. I hate it, when that happens. :-( Regardz Colin J Davies
Sonork ID 100.9197:Colin
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Most software is pirated in places like India, China, and the Middle East. Wouldn’t it seem fair then to place a tariff on software developed there? It only makes sense because the majority of the first world countries pay for licensed software and development tools, while third world countries can undercut those in the first world because they only paid 50 cents for their software. The tariff would then be used by the governments of the first world to compensate software development firms for lost revenue, both in terms of licensing revenue lost, and to those companies who were undercut by foreign companies who don’t pay for licensed software. What are your opinions on this?
It's a little difficult to figure out what the tariff should be. Does one country get lower tariffs when they start buying a larger percentage of their software? What if a country has no software industry? They won't care if you put a tariff on software developed in their countries. But, arguably, it could go well beyond software. Additionally, you could include music and movies, too, which are highly pirated. The problem is that a lot of software/music/movies which are pirated are not used in the development of something else. (You sort of assume a pirated copy of DevStudio as a starting point for the post, but pirated DevStudio is a-typical as far as pirated software goes.) As for all the people arguing that "the US cannot impose tariffs because it goes against their preaching of free-trade", I think that is a weak arguement, since tariffs are not imposed to preserve jobs or any of the normal reasons, but rather as a punitive measure because most countries don't give a damn about whether or not their citizens pay for software developed in the rest of the world. In fact, they probably encourage it because it can raise productivity at no cost. Countries have to be MADE to care because they will NOT care about protecting other people's software when that software is developed outside their countries. It also disrupts the balance of trade, and, right now, there are a lot of countries which are feeding off of a huge trade imbalance with the US (China comes to mind). If we have to pay for their goods, why shouldn't they pay for ours? Overall, I DON'T think a tariff on software will solve the problem for several reasons (1) many countries have no software industry, so they are unaffected, (2) it's difficult and potentially political to figure out what tariffs should be set at. BTW, software piracy is extremely common in some places. If I remember correctly, 98% of all software used in Vietnam (the worst offender) is pirated.
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Colin Davies wrote: think you are a pack of hypocrits you ??? quick, show me one person reading this who has any effect at all on the trade policy of the US or any other country. ok. time's, up. you lose. -c
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Chris Losinger wrote: quick, show me one person reading this who has any effect at all on the trade policy of the US or any other country. We all do, as voters. If we didn't believe that, then we don't believe we are living in a democracy. (Well I assume most people that use this are living under a democratic system.) Have fun, Paul Westcott.
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Chris Losinger wrote: quick, show me one person reading this who has any effect at all on the trade policy of the US or any other country. We all do, as voters. If we didn't believe that, then we don't believe we are living in a democracy. (Well I assume most people that use this are living under a democratic system.) Have fun, Paul Westcott.
trade policy, like most other policies, is set by PACs and lobbiests. <rant> except for crazy exceptions like Jesse Ventura, I don't believe the US is a democracy. i believe it is an oligarchy, run by the two parties who are in turn, run by business interests. the businesses are not looking out for employees, but for their shareholders (which is how a corporation is supposed to act). but the shareholders with enough shares to make corporate policy are by and large, extremely wealthy individuals. the only time the average citizen does well by government is when his interests coincide with that of big business. </rant> -c
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