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Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

pluralistic.net

51–60 of 110 posts

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#51

Apple's European revenue for the App Store is only 7% of its global App Store receipts. At some point apple will just leave the market. The EU is a bit bonkers to think that it can get global tech companies to comply with increasingly tech-hostile regulations without any push back or red lines. At some point it just stops being worth the hassle.

"Apple's most valuable intangible asset isn't its patents or copyrights – it's an army of people who believe that using products from a $2.89 trillion multinational makes them members of an oppressed religious minority whose identity is coterminal with the interests of Apple's shareholders."

-- https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/12/youre-holding-it-wrong/#i...

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#52

I have zero doubt in my mind that Apple is in for a rude awakening. No way will the EU stand this level of malicious compliance. The gloves are off and I fully expect for Apple to not come out unscathed.

> Apple to not come out unscathed.

Doesn't mean Apple won't still come out the relative winner.

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#53

Apple's European revenue for the App Store is only 7% of its global App Store receipts. At some point apple will just leave the market. The EU is a bit bonkers to think that it can get global tech companies to comply with increasingly tech-hostile regulations without any push back or red lines. At some point it just stops being worth the hassle.

There's no way Apple can justify leaving 100 million in revenue on the table to their board. They will do whatever it takes to remain in the EU market.

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#54

These issues need good unbiased reporting, and as much as I love Cory, his reporting is all but unbiased. It's activism. Which is perfectly ok, and extremely important, but in this case it reeks of an extremism that is damaging to the cause itself. The truth is that decrying things like Apple's splash screen about the use of alternative stores, for example, is ridiculous. Apple has all the legal rights to do that, an…

> Apple's splash screen about the use of alternative stores, for example, is ridiculous. Apple has all the legal rights to do that,

Isn't the question whether the EU thinks they have the legal right to do that, and how the law can be changed so that they don't do that?

Anyway, the article points out that certain companies are exempted from those alleged "Apple rules" already ..

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm counting down the days like it's Christmas.

I find it hilarious how certain people on HN are so pro-corpo. You get a feeling like Apple is part of their family, not a monopolistic giant just needing one excuse to permaban you from their services.

That's because HN is the private playground of the venture capital tech elite and those who are courting them.

Most of the people here would love to be Apple and to abuse the shit out of their users rights in order to make profit.

This is not Slashdot.

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#56

>murder Setting a bunch of cookies isn’t something I would equate to murder. If you want me to read your article please use less hyperbole. The author sounds like an unhinged lunatic who takes his pet issue way too seriously.

Isolating a single word out of context isn't something I would equate with a good faith comment. The comment author sounds like an unhinged lunatic driven to irrelevant knee jerk reactions.

The author, in the context of an article talking about how big companies can bypass various monopoly and privacy laws, wrote how: "companies really do get away with both literal and figurative murder".

That's a general statement about what companies can get away with. He didn't assign cookie violations to "literal murder". It's obvious that "figurative murder" is the kind he abscribes to the violations he talks about, like GDPR.

As in the very common figurative idiom "getting away with murder", which is about doing bad stuff/breaking the law, and not having any serious consequence. Or do you pretend to never have heard of it?

As for the general statement, it still stands. Companies have historically also gotten away with literal murder too, and it's a valid point to raise when talking about how companies can often violate laws with impunity.

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm counting down the days like it's Christmas.

You want iPhones and iPads and MacBooks to be discontinued from the European market?

I completely don't mind. The people who still want to buy Apple can just do a direct import themselves. Probably AliExpress will even offer to do it for you, just like they do for other non-EU companies that refuse to play by EU rules, e.g. Xaomi.

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#58
post #23
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So more options are bad, because people might make choices that they don't understand? Is this the invisible hand of the market that people have been wanging on about for the past dekades? Or is this new-found worry about people choosing wrong things something that is only limited to Apple? Because I could imagine other, worse markets with much more impact on people that are less regulated (e.g. food).

Food is highly regulated by the state, at least in the US and EU (probably too highly regulated). It is also a market with numerous platforms which compete to offer quality guarantees - i.e. supermarkets. The difference with Apple is just that the platform is more tied in to the hardware.

Sure, but would you like one company to decide which food you are allowed to eat?

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#59

These issues need good unbiased reporting, and as much as I love Cory, his reporting is all but unbiased. It's activism. Which is perfectly ok, and extremely important, but in this case it reeks of an extremism that is damaging to the cause itself. The truth is that decrying things like Apple's splash screen about the use of alternative stores, for example, is ridiculous. Apple has all the legal rights to do that, an…

We need opinion pieces as much as (so-called) unbiased reporting. This one puts things into perspective, rather than merely summarizing facts and viewpoints.

I appreciate that it clearly does so and doesn't pretend to be unbiased. Nor does the so-called activism work behind the screen to manipulate politicians - like no doubt many paid by Apple lobbyists are currently doing.

You call it activism like it is a bad thing. If it is, then let us dump freedom of speech.

Re: Apple to EU: "Go fuck yourself"

#60
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not true at all

You're free to think otherwise, but this is what I've been repeatedly told by entrepreneurs in Europe (who mostly copy US ideas), and europeans living in Silicon Valley (who came here to innovate in ways they can't back home).

Yeah or it's just the capital that has been there in abundance. Spawned from the defense industry, thriving through the money made in the 2000s and after by creating profits all over the world (ads!) and then evading taxation as much as possible while funneling the money back to the valley and hiring the world's best talent to keep that first place.

The small business owner pays taxes because what else can they do? Big corps go through tax-havens and relocations and don't do so, while profiting off of the infrastructure paid for by taxes (=> enabling customers over seas to even buy iphones). Traditional companies ship physical products and/or employ more people in the respective countries, while they also try to evade taxation I think those circumstances make them a much better subject to it though.

Really, the more I keep on talking to my friends in the Valley the more it boils down to the money factor. Salaries, VCs and all the likes. I don't say Europe shouldn't be less business hostile, but one should see the Valley the way it is and realize that just buy changing the laws and trying to copy it Europe can't succeed. They should find their own path.

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