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EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

juliareda.eu

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Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#51

Post by xevb3k »

pacnard wrote: post #49
merinowool wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I think there are EU paid shills on HackerNews now. They do exist. I've also noticed they downvote anti-EU post en masse after they've been posted for some time (I have multiple throwaway). Sorry for the tin foil, but it's not normal that when a post is anti-EU it gets upvoted at first and then it suddently falls into oblivion in a short amount of time, like someone suddently noticed. That's not a normal pattern for…

There’s no karma level that allows users to downvote articles according to the unofficial hackernews faq. It’s possible that the admins downweight the articles because politics in general is frowned upon?

I don’t think you really have much proof on pro-EU state sponsored sock puppets... but a more detailed analysis would be interesting!

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#52

Post by _jn »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #8
anoncow wrote: post #4

GDPR and the proposed copyright laws will break the internet irrecoverably. The start-up industry will be a long forgotten dream. These old b@$%%%s will turn the internet into cable television. Scumbags would want to go back to a world of slavery, colonisation and wealth locked up as gold in personal treasuries. I hope all the other countries follow suit and then the only thing we will be able to aim for is a job in…

This is unnecessarily alarmist and hilarious. It's clear that personal information and other data was not properly respected by many startups and large companies. Data "breaches" and the various apology tours have shown a massive loophole in the law, and now the law is responding by closing the loophole. If your business was profiting specifically by exploiting personal information, this would be a sad day for you bu…

I’d be very interested in hearing the counterarguments to this comment instead of just seeing downvotes.

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#53

Post by pacnard »

xevb3k wrote: post #51
pacnard wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are EU paid shills on HackerNews now. They do exist. I've also noticed they downvote anti-EU post en masse after they've been posted for some time (I have multiple throwaway). Sorry for the tin foil, but it's not normal that when a post is anti-EU it gets upvoted at first and then it suddently falls into oblivion in a short amount of time, like someone suddently noticed. That's not a normal pattern for…

There’s no karma level that allows users to downvote articles according to the unofficial hackernews faq. It’s possible that the admins downweight the articles because politics in general is frowned upon? I don’t think you really have much proof on pro-EU state sponsored sock puppets... but a more detailed analysis would be interesting!

I am talking about comments. Of course I can be wrong about this situation since it's basically gut feeling and perceptions. Still, aside from the votes, there have been some really weird comments in this thread too, something that just doesn't feel it can align with how a programmer or entreprenur would express himself. Sorry if I'm sharing my emotions.

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#54

Post by jpetso »

pdkl95 wrote: post #40

From the associated article about this supposed "link tax". > Anyone using snippets of journalistic online content must first get a license from the publisher. Re-publishing a portion of a published work is not a "link". A link is only a reference (address) where something (e.g. a published work) may be found, which not part of the work itself. Displaying a portion of work might be an allowed "fair use"? (I only know…

> Should it be necessary, this kind of feature is better implemented in the user agent. I'm fairly certain I saw link prefetch+preview extensions for Firefox ~10 years ago.

I'd rather avoid that; sending fingerprintable information to random websites linked from e.g. a search result page or an article seems like a great way to unnecessarily expose myself to being tracked and abused in all kinds of ways.

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#55

Post by TAForObvReasons »

_jn wrote: post #52
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is unnecessarily alarmist and hilarious. It's clear that personal information and other data was not properly respected by many startups and large companies. Data "breaches" and the various apology tours have shown a massive loophole in the law, and now the law is responding by closing the loophole. If your business was profiting specifically by exploiting personal information, this would be a sad day for you bu…

I’d be very interested in hearing the counterarguments to this comment instead of just seeing downvotes.

The uncommented and numerous downvotes (-4 at the moment) in these discussions about GDPR remind me of the great Upton Sinclair quote:

> It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#56

Post by ACow_Adonis »

pacnard wrote: post #53
xevb3k wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no karma level that allows users to downvote articles according to the unofficial hackernews faq. It’s possible that the admins downweight the articles because politics in general is frowned upon? I don’t think you really have much proof on pro-EU state sponsored sock puppets... but a more detailed analysis would be interesting!

I am talking about comments. Of course I can be wrong about this situation since it's basically gut feeling and perceptions. Still, aside from the votes, there have been some really weird comments in this thread too, something that just doesn't feel it can align with how a programmer or entreprenur would express himself. Sorry if I'm sharing my emotions.

I've said it in other threads and I'll say it again: programmers and entrepreneurs are far more than silicon valley, advertising companies, and ad supported websites. Part of the reason may be the myopia of a certain type of programmer in not realising they are possibly the minority.

As an aside, each time I post a comment like this, my karma goes up and down like a yo-yo for 24 hours :p

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#57

Post by fanzhang »

nickpp wrote: post #11

As public regulators all over the world are busy pushing regulations (what else? that is their sole job after all) maybe it is time to stop and ask: are we losing more than we are gaining? Everything has a price and free markets are the only mechanism for determining that price. But regulations overwrite that price with one determined by politics and lobby and populism. This new price is paid by all no matter if we w…

Free markets aren't always good at pricing things. For example highways wouldn't get built because of the holdout problem if there wasn't eminent domain.

There is also such thing as inalienable rights: the ability to sell yourself into slavery probably should be banned, even though libertarian agents seemingly should know the value of their own freedom.

But it also seems evident in this regulation that no one is doing that calculus. Everyone is clear on "with this regulation we gain X", but only a small fraction of people seem to be thinking "and then, people will behave in Y way and we lose Z".

With many US regulations, there are public comment periods, and those comments are summarized and published. At least when many regulations pass, people know the potential downsides. Can anyone link to the EU equivalent of this? What has the EU parliament office said about the pros and cons?

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#58

Post by [deleted] »

nickpp wrote: post #11

As public regulators all over the world are busy pushing regulations (what else? that is their sole job after all) maybe it is time to stop and ask: are we losing more than we are gaining? Everything has a price and free markets are the only mechanism for determining that price. But regulations overwrite that price with one determined by politics and lobby and populism. This new price is paid by all no matter if we w…

[deleted]

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#59

Post by forapurpose »

nickpp wrote: post #11

As public regulators all over the world are busy pushing regulations (what else? that is their sole job after all) maybe it is time to stop and ask: are we losing more than we are gaining? Everything has a price and free markets are the only mechanism for determining that price. But regulations overwrite that price with one determined by politics and lobby and populism. This new price is paid by all no matter if we w…

> As public regulators all over the world are busy pushing regulations (what else? that is their sole job after all) maybe it is time to stop and ask ...

Maybe it's time? That implies that this propaganda about regulations and regulators and this question haven't been talking points for the right and for libertarians for decades, and on HN probably for as long as it's existed. The current U.S. president and GOP go on and on about it ceaselessly. Maybe it's time to ask if proprietary software is more secure than open source, or if Microsoft or Google are monopolists, or if the iPhone will ever take off.

Or, 'maybe it's time' to add some value to the conversation rather than yet more rhetoric.

Re: EU censorship machines and link tax laws are nearing the finish line

#60

Post by [deleted] »

whataretensors wrote: post #43
merinowool wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I don't necessarily agree but the immediate downvotes anyone receives for questioning the EU's pure intentions is interesting. People are either extremely trusting of huge global governments or we're being brigaded.

[deleted]
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