** On Nov 13, Craig Sanders scribbled:
> > > the cost of the license.
> > I don't think it includes a cost of license. In few mails before I have
> > clarified it why.
>
> sure it does. the monetary cost of the license is zero dollars, which is
> clearly included in the price you paid for the CD.
It must be explicitly put somewhere - either in the distribution itself
("The cost of acquiring the GPL license is US $0.0") or on the receipt of
purchase - that's what I was told by somebody fluent in financial matters
here.
> > > importantly, it also establishes that MS software is not an
> > > appropriate reference for price. MS Windows etc cost hundreds of
> > > dollars. A Debian CD costs $2.
> >
> > So I don't like M$ shareware. It's to expensive.
>
> fair enough. but you need to challenge their use of MS software
> as a reference price. you can do that in at least two ways: a)
> by establishing that gnu/linux is an entirely different type of
Won't work. For them it's a Server Software for PC machines, and so is
Windows NT.
> software, with vastly different functionality to MS software; and b) by
> establishing that gnu/linux software already has a known market price
> - either use the $2 price of a CD, or the retail price of any of the
> commercial distributions or the retail price of a BSD CD-set.
That would work with the addition of the abovementioned License matter.
[snip]
> > It's a good argument for Linux users but I am not sure if it's enough
> > for Polish tax offices. These guys do not have such sense of humour if
> > they talks about money.
>
> true, but unless someone makes these arguments to them (and does it
> repeatedly), it's just not going to sink in.
I'm afraid the Debian GNU/Linux share in the Polish market is too low for
the choir to be loud enough to be heard by the tax officials.
[snip]
> it's probably also worth finding out if there have been any previous tax
> rulings related to public domain or out-of-copyright works - probably
> more likely to be for books or audio recordings than for software.
>
> also find out if commercial radio stations have to pay tax on the value
> of any records or CDs sent to them by record companies. they probably
Oh, yes, they do. They pay huge money to ZAIKS (an organization of artists
,performers and vendors) not for each and every song they broadcast, but for
all songs they CAN broadcast (they also have to prove that the song comes
from a legal source). What's funny, is that when you run a shop and you play
radio so that customers can hear it - you should pay the same fee to ZAIKS
what the radio paid for broadcasting the songs! Sounds insane, but that's
the reality.
marek
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