# France eyes 'Google Tax' for French websites

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-eyes-google-tax-for-french-websites/639331>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 30, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-eyes-google-tax-for-french-websites/639331 "2012-10-30T16:03:20Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-eyes-google-tax-for-french-websites/639331/1 "2012-10-30T16:03:20Z")

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[http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/lifestyles/consumer\_tech/France-eyes-Google-Tax-for-French-websites\_71389369](http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/lifestyles/consumer_tech/France-eyes-Google-Tax-for-French-websites_71389369)

PARIS (AP) — French President Francois Hollande is considering a pushing for a new tax that would see search engines such as Google have to pay each time they use content from French media.

This is hilarious. Hollande is really getting desperate. So - when Google excludes French media sites from its search results, will that help the French economy?

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**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-eyes-google-tax-for-french-websites/639331/2 "2012-10-30T16:23:33Z")

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Heh. If there was ever a case study for a Laffer curve, it’s France.

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**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-eyes-google-tax-for-french-websites/639331/3 "2012-10-30T16:25:28Z")

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What’s next? A tax on berets, tongue kisses, and french-fries?:dubious:

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**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-eyes-google-tax-for-french-websites/639331/4 "2012-10-30T16:34:13Z")

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> [@kayaker](#):
>
> What’s next? A tax on berets, tongue kisses, and french-fries?:dubious:

They could make a fortune on two out of three of those.

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**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\
**Post date:** [October 30, 2012, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/france-eyes-google-tax-for-french-websites/639331/5 "2012-10-30T17:54:49Z")

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From reports of Eric Schmidt’s visit the proposal does not seem to concern a _tax_ but rather a levy distributed to content publishers, modeled on [the proposed legislation in Germany](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancillary_copyright) (which is currently in the draft-bill-circulated-for-discussion stage). What is at issue is the use of news story snippets by Google News and similar aggregators (which is currently free to the aggregators; the legislation is about giving the originating news sites a right to being paid for use of the snippets).