http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/10/france-to-fight-piracy-prop-up-music-industry-with-new-subsidy.ars?comments=1#comments-bar

The french government decided that piracy is a big problem, and they have the solution... they will teach young people to buy music... by subsidizing music purchases with taxpayer money.

They declare it as a dedication to preserving their culture, alongside that push they also intend to subsidize books over ebooks, and purchase "free" subscriptions to newspaper for all citizens in favor of online media consumption, again, using taxpayer money. Alongside those, punitive taxes will be levied on new technologies that threaten the protected distribution methods.

I don't know where to even begin deriding those plans. They are, first and foremost, theft. Just because the government is doing it doesn't mean its right, you cannot take someone's property against his or her wishes and do with it as you please.

Beyond this, those plans induce stagnation by supporting obsolete media in favor of newer, better media. Don't you wish the governments of the world taxed the car industries and subsidized the horse and buggy companies so we could enjoy the culture of riding horses instead of cars? no? well me neither.

Furthermore there is the issue of pollution. Instead of pollution free digital distribution, they wish to support dead tree products. With newspapers its even worse, as they have to be constantly reprinted, shipped daily all across the country, then shipped to waste facilities to be destroyed.

How long do you think they can keep up with such reckless spending until the French suffer the same economic meltdown that happened in Greece?