One of our scenario writers in December 08, imagined that the government would levy “everything that moves in cyberspace”.
The Rudd government saw the Free to Air Television stations were doomed and that it should control access to what it called The Right to Distribute. So it levied all audiovisual distribution companies, including every web based business operating in Australia. Turnbull continued this policy. Even the global corporations had to pay hefty fees, based on their population (or ‘user’ ) reach, if they were running any advertising or pay-for-use services…..
This was a story for a world where protectionism and government control were primary drivers of the communication environment.
(Our scenarios represent 4 different worlds)
Perhaps this is not such a fantasy now, as suggested in this report on existing and proposed taxes on internet downloads
Filed under: Governance, funding
