FITUG e.V. Förderverein Informationstechnik und Gesellschaft

FC: UN wants to tax the Net

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Wed, 14 Jul 1999 07:46:02 -0400
To:            politech@vorlon.mit.edu
From:          Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:       FC: UN wants to tax the Net
Reply-to:      declan@well.com

A similar and equally benighted proposal from a few years back:
  http://www.ispo.cec.be/hleg/hleg.html

********

http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/20705.html

UN Proposes Global Email Tax
                     by Katie Dean 

                     12:00 p.m.  13.Jul.99.PDT
                     World governments should tax the
                     Internet to help underdeveloped countries
                     get access to the network, said a report
                     released Monday by the United Nations
                     Development Program. 

                     "The Internet has the potential to offset
                     inequalities in the global community, but if we
                     don't take action it will only reinforce them,"
                     said Kate Raworth, economist and co-author of the
                     Human Development Report. 

                     [...]



http://199.97.97.16/contWriter/cnd7/1999/07/12/cndin/6626-0371-pat_nyt
imes.h tml Internet Use Should Be Taxed to Help Poorer Countries, UN
Says MOYETTE GIBBONS c.1999 Bloomberg News GENEVA -- Information sent
through the Internet should be taxed to fund access for developing
countries to the global communications network, the United Nations
says in a new report. A small tax of one cent on every 100 lengthy
emails would generate more than $70 billion a year to help provide
expensive equipment in poor countries, many of which, are still
struggling to catch up with older technologies, such as telephones,
televisions and radios, the UN's latest Human Development Report said.
The UN estimates that the number of Internet users worldwide will
increase from 150 million this year to more than 700 million in 2001.
The information revolution, though, risks further dividing rich and
poor countries, it said. ``The typical Internet user world-wide is
male, under 35 years old, with a university education and high income,
urban based and English speaking,'' the report said. ``The literally
well connected have an overpowering advantage over the unconnected
poor.'' 

[...]


----------------------------------------------------------------------
---- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
To subscribe: send a message to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu with this
text: subscribe politech More information is at
http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
----