Well, that "upgraded" VAT was specifically developed to provide additional revenues against copying, and at first applied mainly to blank tapes, CDs and hard drives (which made sense). Even so, I'd be surprised if mentioning this tax would get you out of trouble should you end up in a court of law because of illegal copying.
Which is where I feel I'm getting screwed twice
: not only do I have to pay more for my digital books, but in addition it is still illegal for me to lend them to a friend.
In the end, I love my ereader but I would not have purchased it if I did not know I would be savvy enough to remove the DRMs, something which is still legal in France but not for long, which is crazy when you think I'm ready to spend money instead of going to torrents. Ebooks economics might make sense someday, but they certainly don't now.