Saying "The Empeg Player isn't a mass storage device" is fairly silly, if you ask me. That's what it primarily is - a removable mass storage device. It happens to have a lot of extra cool features and electronics, but in computer terms, it's definitely a mass storage device. It's designed for one fairly specific purpose, yes, but at its heart it's a place to store and retrieve data, and nothing about the design prevents it from storing data other than digital audio. One could buy a second docking station, wipe the software, and have a very expensive but more-or-less standard removable/dockable hard drive.


Yes, and one could wipe software from a CRAY and have an intersting sculpture. Yet, while export of sculptures to, say, China is not restricted, export of CRAYs is (or rather was, RIP, more or less). Try to imagine weight of your arguments at a court of law.

To give you a more realistic example: I think you would agree that empeg is intrinsicaly a computer, but that its intended use is to serve as in-car audio equipment. No amount of arguing with our customs officials made them clasify as general purpose computer (0% due), but ICE component (8% due). When I insisted it is just computer, with a CPU, memory, some general purpose and some specialized I/O etc, they replied "My dear sir, so are modern TV sets, washing machines and cars, and still, we have separate tax categories for them."

In short, don't confuse technical reasoning with legal one.

Cheers!

Dragi "Bonzi" Raos
Zagreb, Croatia
Q#5196, MkII#80000376, 18GB green