News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Music labels will regret coming for the Internet Archive, sound historian says. Parent comment

Re:Music labels will regret coming for the Internet Archive,... by nerdponx on Monday March 10, 2025 @09:53PM (#43328344)
Fraudulently reducing tax revenue by 1 entity/individual effectively shifts the burden of taxation to everyone else who is not willing or able to commit the same fraud. At the macro level, this adds up to billions more dollars every year in the unmanageable and unmanageably-growing federal debt. The US federal government plans to spend 16% of its total spending simply on paying interest on its debt: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/natio...

So-called fiscal conservatives should be howling in Congress about this kind of thing. (Narrator: they aren't.)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Music labels will regret coming for the Internet Archive,... by badlibrarian on Monday March 10, 2025 @10:31PM (#43328581)
It may be bad policy but it's not fraudulent.

Running a deficit can be profitable long term -- or not. It depends on how the funds are allocated. Ask Bezos.

Likewise a tax writeoff can increase tax revenue over the long term -- or not. It depends how the tax savings are applied. Ask the employees who still have their jobs.

Regardless, a media company struggling to breakeven with cartoon coyotes may not be the best starting point for an economics debate.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Music labels will regret coming for the Internet Archive,... by nerdponx on Tuesday March 11, 2025 @08:22AM (#43331724)
It's fraudulent in the sense that it's a fake loss, as you say created by clever accounting.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Music labels will regret coming for the Internet Archive,... by badlibrarian on Tuesday March 11, 2025 @09:44AM (#43332377)
That's not what I said. For avoidance of doubt, allow me to rephrase the concept in the local language: paying a bunch of artists and engineers to build an app that generates minimal revenue, pulling it from the app store, then writing off the loss, is neither clever nor fraudulent.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Music labels will regret coming for the Internet Archive,... by nerdponx on Tuesday March 11, 2025 @10:03AM (#43332553)
Right, I get what you said.

I am arguing that it is in fact a fraud perpetrated against the taxpayer, even if it's not legally categorized as "fraud" at this time.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Music labels will regret coming for the Internet Archive,... by badlibrarian on Tuesday March 11, 2025 @10:58AM (#43333113)
Why is writing off a loss fraudulent? This very website is funded by such actions.
[ Parent | on HN ]