They keep doing these things that are ostensibly aimed at hurting Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. But the effect of their actions just entrenches those big players, who have the money and the legal teams and the resources, such that the added regulatory burden widens their moats and suppresses upstart competition.
Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
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Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#72This is the european equivalent to project golden shield. Establish hostile laws, locking google,amazon and fb out & grow local companies to fill the gap.
Nothing about these laws is specific to foreign companies. It's specific to data abusing companies and if those come from within Europe they get fined too.
Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Economist had an article here a few days ago lamenting that Europe fails to produce IPOs, which is where the actual problem lies. A lot of European startups don't get to the size where an IPO exit would be appropriate because a US company buys them before that can happen.
You don't have to sell out to a big US company, so it's worth pausing to ask how we've reached the situation you described.
Of course you don't, but someone offering to make you a multi-millionaire is hard to say no to. I imagine. I've never been in the situation unfortunately.
Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Economist had an article here a few days ago lamenting that Europe fails to produce IPOs, which is where the actual problem lies. A lot of European startups don't get to the size where an IPO exit would be appropriate because a US company buys them before that can happen.
You don't have to sell out to a big US company, so it's worth pausing to ask how we've reached the situation you described.
The issue is that there are a bunch of big is companies with way too much cash who can buy any potential competitor. I do not feel it matters much how they got that big. What we instead need to limit is their ability to buy competitors.
Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#75How about actually supporting the European Tech industry instead of just adding endless bureaucracy? Ban Oracle and Microsoft from public procurement and start supporting the European equivalent of Baidu or Yandex. With ARM (prior to the acquisition), Linux, MariaDB, etc. - Europe was in a great position to do this. We need to stop this digital colonialism where massive, monopolistic US corporations pay no taxes in E…
How about we actually think hard about the situation, formulate clearly why we don't like it and propose non-ad-hoc legislation that fixes the specific issues? Banning companies on the basis of "too powerful"/"I don't like them" is how dictatorships work, we should strive to be better than that, even if it is more work. I agree with your motives, but I still believe in the "legal state" ideal.
Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#76How about actually supporting the European Tech industry instead of just adding endless bureaucracy? Ban Oracle and Microsoft from public procurement and start supporting the European equivalent of Baidu or Yandex. With ARM (prior to the acquisition), Linux, MariaDB, etc. - Europe was in a great position to do this. We need to stop this digital colonialism where massive, monopolistic US corporations pay no taxes in E…
I wouldn't ban the company (there's no way to make that sound right).
Just ban the practices they follow, which makes them unqualified to participate unless they really change that.
For example, public procurement should always require software be open source as a hard dealbraker. This is actually the case in [too few] countries.
Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#77Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
>How about actually supporting the European Tech industry instead of just adding endless bureaucracy? Why do you make it sound like they don't? The EU invests massive amounts in technology (in regards to its paltry investment budget, but that's another debate). One does not prevent the other. And calling regulations against clear abuse "endless bureaucracy" is insidious at best.
> The EU invests massive amounts in technology (in regards to its paltry investment budget, but that's another debate) The problem is that the EU invests. Small businesses are taxed to death and swamped with bureaucracy. From that you can clearly see where this is going.
As someone running s small business in the EU: how am I taxed to death? The only taxes a startup really needs to care about are taxes on salary but since competent employees are a fraction of the cost here compared to SF it does not matter that taxes are higher. There is also VAT which can affect some businesses but in general is not too big of a deal.
No, I can't see how taxes are to blame. Taxes are not signficant concern for most startups.
Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#79How about actually supporting the European Tech industry instead of just adding endless bureaucracy? Ban Oracle and Microsoft from public procurement and start supporting the European equivalent of Baidu or Yandex. With ARM (prior to the acquisition), Linux, MariaDB, etc. - Europe was in a great position to do this. We need to stop this digital colonialism where massive, monopolistic US corporations pay no taxes in E…
I wouldn't ban the company (there's no way to make that sound right). Just ban the practices they follow, which makes them unqualified to participate unless they really change that. For example, public procurement should always require software be open source as a hard dealbraker. This is actually the case in [too few] countries.
I'd be curious about an example of a country where this is at all a requirement. Sadly I think not even Estonia asks for that, they just work with great central services and APIs.
Re: Big tech face EU blow in national data watchdogs ruling
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles > The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Hebrides and over six thousand smaller islands. [They] include two sovereign states, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles_naming_dispute No-one in Ireland would refer to them as the British Isles.
I do