[tomComb]

Not really - in the final agreement it no longer has the form of a link tax.

Now it is simply a payment from Google going mostly to the big telecom companies. Their lobbyists are the ones who wrote the original bill and this was always simply about getting more money for them.

[tantalor]

What's the difference

[tomComb]

A tax on links charges Google or Facebook for every time they send people to other sites (yes, that is the reverse of the normal).

The final agreement involves a simple lump sum, recurring payment from Google to (mostly) Rogers and Bell.

It's a more pure form of shake down, but it's less harmful to the web.