According to Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten at TheNextWeb.com blog the Dutch government recently formed a special committee to come up with a course of action to save the Dutch newspaper industry. The main recommendation of the Brinkman committee was to place a special tax on all Internet access.
The idea being that the 2 Euros yearly tax all Dutch families would be required to pay, resulting in and extra 12 million per year, would be used on ‘innovative’ projects. These so-called innovative projects the committee suggested might help find a solution to the increasing decline in the newspaper industry.
Needless to say said Boris the blowback to this idea has been strong and swift
As you would expect there are thousands of angry comments on the online articles who reported on the issue this morning. They compare it to paying a ‘car tax’ to save the Horse-Drawn Carriage Industry. Or taxing email to fund the post office because people are sending less paper around.
It appears though that this response has been successful if the update from Boris is any indication
UPDATED : Dutch parliament will ignore the commission’s advice and has decided against an Internet tax. I’m sure that is a huge relief for a LOT of people.
Wow … a government that actually seems to listen to the people who elected them – how unusual.
