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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

#81

Post by sidibe »

donatj wrote: post #80
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue the EU is "moving fast and breaking things" because the industry was incapable of self-regulating.

I think it's self regulating just fine. It's met the needs and desires of the majority. I just think Privacy advocates are a very vocal very small minority whom found themselves in power in Europe. Basically everyone save a select few would rather have the convenience Facebook has brought over the privacy GDPR tries to bring. I assure you the majority would rather have free services than self righteous lack there of.…

I think you are right. What we have here is an issue that a small percentage of people care very deeply about and others agree with them in principle but don't really care. Now that this issue is going to affect everyone in ways they notice, they will start to chime in on the other side. I think many people would rather pay for things with data than money. GDPR seems to go too far in that it doesn't even allow that (companies can't deny someone using their service if they don't opt in to tracking)

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

#82

Post by raverbashing »

jsnell wrote: post #12

I had not realized that this insane bit with an inalienable right to monetary remuneration had made it to the drafts. We already know from the past cases that if given the choices between paying for the privilege of linking vs. not linking at all, search engines and social networks will do the latter. The economic value of e.g. news searches must be miniscule. But maybe there is a little bit of value there, even if n…

Yeah, it's absurd.

> Unless they're a top 2 media conglomerate of an European country, and would like for all their weaker competitors to be killed off.

Maybe that's the idea, but I think it's shooting yourself in the foot, even then.

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

#83

Post by jack9 »

joejerryronnie wrote: post #63
forapurpose wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

I don't think this comment is adding value to the conversation. It is also riddled with the commentor's own political rhetoric.

You illustrated the point. The GPs comment is philosophical but there's still people who are fooled by these comments into thinking they have novelty, when it's simply a position that has existed since inception.

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

#84

Post by beagle3 »

reaperducer wrote: post #76
shiado wrote: post #71

If the sites don't want the traffic from links that drive their revenue then why don't they identify the servers which are prefetching content and IP ban them and file abuse complaints. They probably have very identifiable User-Agent strings. Also this link tax reminds me that I think browser vendors should provide better privacy options for removing the referer header from link requests to prevent tracking.

> They probably have very identifiable User-Agent strings Yes. Because bots never change or spoof their user agents.

"link tax" is aimed at mature aggregators and search engines, someone you can actually sue. GoogleBot, BingBot and friends do not change or spoof their user agents.

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

#85

Post by beagle3 »

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…

Why do you (and others) lump GDPR with this law? There is nothing common to them.

Other than people who actually profit of personal data, I have not met one person who isn't in favor of the GDPR. This law is different.

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

#86

Post by barry-cotter »

fanzhang wrote: post #57
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 doin…

I suggest you look up the history of road building in the U.K. The holdout problem is far from insuperable, even without eminent domain.

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

#87

Post by rnnr »

bitL wrote: post #32
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…

Imagine most of those involved in regulations are barely able to use Word/Excel, yet are "elected" to decide the fate of technology.

And who is going to stop them, when even multi-million companies just shallow the pill(like GDPR) and even try to market it positively that they are gonna adopt it first.

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

#88

Post by rorykoehler »

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…

Couldn't agree more. EU regulations are playing into the hands of large established dinosaurs at the cost of indie and SME businesses. Im really concerned at how this will pan out.

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

#90

Post by reaperducer »

beagle3 wrote: post #84
reaperducer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They probably have very identifiable User-Agent strings Yes. Because bots never change or spoof their user agents.

"link tax" is aimed at mature aggregators and search engines, someone you can actually sue. GoogleBot, BingBot and friends do not change or spoof their user agents.

If you think being a large company means its user agent doesn't change, you haven't been monitoring user agents very long.

The fact that you choose to use Bing as an example proves my point. Bing is only eight years old. Before that it identified itself as msnbot.

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