[Pulpmeister]

What this amounts to is a lobby group asking the government for a handout, on the grounds they are being robbed, and suggesting that the government get the money back by taxing third parties.

This is as logical as, say, the supermarket chains asking the government for a handout, because they are being robbed by shoplifters, and suggesting that the government get the money back by taxing, say, car tires, on the grounds that the shoplifters usually arrive in cars...

Basically, it's corporate welfare. I don't know what the solution is to preventing theft of digital material, and obviously the industry doesn't either. That's no reason to dip into the taxpayers' pockets. It's their own responsibility to protect their own commercial property from theft in the first place.

Currently there is an ongoing "conversation" about Australia's tax system and tax mix, and one of our newspapers studied the submissions by the various corporations and industry groups on how to improve the system. Every one of them simply asked for more tax breaks for them, lower tax rates for them, less regulation for them. None of them (surprise surprise) suggested that a big improvement would be pulling back taxes from secretive tax and regulation havens, which would make a very useful difference to the budget bottom line.

I'm feeling cynical today.