The French court ordered Apple Inc to pay over 5 million euros or $6.5 million worth of copyright taxes for iPad sales in 2011. The court ruling was removed last 2012 but this time, the French government is considering creating a new law on involving cultural taxes related to devices. French cultural tax is the government's way to generate subsidies from artists.

The ruling of the Grand Tribunal was announced via Copie France. Apple is mandated to pay a percentage of its iPad sales to the agency even if it's unclear if it has authority to do so. The agreed provision amount is 5 million euros but a final ruling has yet to be made. The court ruling is a significant win for the copyright copyright advocates.

French newspaper, Le Monde, reported that device manufacturers like Apple are also already disappointed with the copyright tax system. In one year alone, over 200 million euros are raised to from taxing CDs and other types of media. This causes a price distortion in European prices of devices.

In 2012, device manufacturers were able to lobby for the non-expansion of blank media taxes. However, a new law could be change this in the next few months. France is now considering imposing taxes on devices made by Google, Apple and Amazon based on the information received by government regarding a cultural exception rule update. The ruling on iPad tax is timely as France is in the process of reducing the restrictiveness of anti-piracy laws.

The European Union has long been debating over private copyright taxes. Some European countries no longer see them as relevant while others like France encourages it to encourage consumers to contribute in arts and music.

Ongoing ebook sales case

As if Apple Inc is not spending enough money on taxes and legal fees, a US court tries Apple for allegedly colluding with book publishers to fix prices of e-books in the company's e-book sore.

A lawyer for the Department of Justice, Lawrence Butermann, said in his opening statement that Apple would do anything to break Amazon's stronghold of the e-book market even at the expense of its customers.

The e-book anti-trust trial is expected to last for three weeks. The court is still examining evidence dating back to the late Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs. Even if Apple is not at risk to pay a penalty, it could pay for damages in a separate court hearing if the company is found guilty of e-book price fixing.

The five book publishers in question already agreed to a settlement with the Department of Justice but Apple CEO Tim Cook refuses to sign anything that would implicate them of any wrongdoing. Apple will continue to fight the accusations in court.