A report commissioned by the French Minister of Culture Fr
The tax, a small percentage of revenue from online advertising shown to French Internet users, would be honor based, with advertising network operators such as Google, Microsoft, AOL or Yahoo required to declare how much they make.
Such a tax could raise
The authors recognize that France could never introduce such a tax in isolation, noting that ideally the government should encourage other European countries where creators face similar economic challenges to introduce such a tax.
The report was written by Patrick Zelnik, Guillaume Cerutti and Jacques Toubon. Zelnik is president of Impala, a network of independent record companies, Cerutti is a former head of the French consumer protection directorate and Toubon a former Minister of Culture and Minister of Justice known for championing a law enforcing the use of the French language in advertising.
Mitterrand asked the three to report on whether the range of music, films, books and other cultural products offered for legal download is attractive and reasonably priced, and on whether the creators of such products receive a reasonable proportion of the revenue derived from them.
With a significant proportion of online content offered free to consumers, supported by advertising, it was inevitable that the authors would turn their attention to the services by which that advertising is sold and delivered, with Google chief among them.
In their report, the authors also called on the French antitrust regulator, the Authorit