French digital tax may kill VideoLan non-profit

VideoLAN objects to a tax approved by France’s National Assembly that would charge content providers according to the volume of data they send. A cited description gives the rate as €0.055 per gigabyte and says lawmakers expect it to raise €10 billion. VideoLAN argues that the measure shows lawmakers do not understand the technology it affects and clashes with France’s stated goal of technological sovereignty.

The organization says the tax would cost it more than €1 million annually. It emphasizes that VideoLAN is a nonprofit with very limited funds, providing free software such as VLC and other multimedia tools. The concern is that a charge based on data traffic could impose a substantial burden on a group that distributes software without charging users, potentially undermining its ability to keep doing so. One commenter suggests blocking downloads from French IP addresses rather than paying the tax; that is a user’s proposal, not a stated plan by VideoLAN. The exchange offers little detail about how the tax would be administered or which providers would be liable, but it highlights the possible impact of a broad data-volume levy on nonprofit software projects.