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Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

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181–190 of 348 posts

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#181
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The EU started as the European Coal and Steel Community which explains most of the beurocracy its saddled with.

While this is true, the idea behind this was not merely to collaborate on coal and steel production. The intention from the very beginning was that such tight economic coupling would make war impossible. Germany has the idea of "Wandel durch Handel" (change through trade)[1], which is essentially that you can prevent and make war non-viable and eventually even change countries to follow democratic norms. The EU is th…

"Schumann declaration", 1950:

"By pooling basic production and by instituting a new High Authority, whose decisions will bind France, Germany and other member countries, this proposal will lead to the realization of the first concrete foundation of a European federation indispensable to the preservation of peace."

The European Federation was the goal.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#182
post #78

Does anyone know if the DMA would apply to Playstation? Shouldn't I be allowed to boot whatever software I want (Linux) on my PS5?

Well, AFAIK you're allowed to, but that doesn't mean Sony needs to make it possible for you.

That said, if Sony falls under the DMA, they may need to allow sideloading apps or 3rd party stores.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You actually can pay Meta €9.99/month for ad-free Facebook+Instagram in the EU. I would hope this also causes them to track and use much less PII, but I couldn't find anything substantiating that.

As far as I understand the problem with that scheme is that by not paying you not only agree to see the ads but also to the tracking.

Ads on the internet are worth a lot less these days if they don’t come with measurement of whether they are causing conversions (aka tracking). Apparently this measurement is a human rights violation when Google or Meta sell the ads but not when Apple or the NYT do.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#184
post #78

Does anyone know if the DMA would apply to Playstation? Shouldn't I be allowed to boot whatever software I want (Linux) on my PS5?

Consoles aren't generally seen by people as general-purpose computers, neither are they marketed as such by their manufacturers. They're seen by most people as appliances for playing video games.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the side of American prosperity and hegemony. An argument that was often used to justify things like no limit to working hours, no worker's rights, etc

Pffft. Maybe the EU would have some big tech companies of their own if they didn't take entire summers off work.

The EU makes a reasonable number of tech companies (though these days, is there really a distinction between tech and non-tech?), they just keep getting bought out.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#186
post #13

The EU will win this if they want. Their trump card is that, actually, making the EU not a viable market for the most annoying US tech companies would be a huge win for many of their constituents.

Apple should play their Trump card and threaten to pull out of the EU. The EU would blink first because the public backlash would be career ending.

I don't think downvoting this is very useful. You may agree or disagree with the statement, but raising the point provides an opportunity to investigate and discuss it.

I don't think Apple can and will exit the EU since it would upset the shareholders. Also, if Apple does, it just creates a vacuum that will be filled by other tech companies. Tech companies that can then come after Apple in the markets where they are still present.

It is also likely that other countries and trading blocks will make similar demands, at which point Apple will either have to comply or shrink further.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#187
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's an EU parliament election in a few weeks or so, how is that undemocratic?

The EU Parliament can’t make decisions, it can only veto the commission which acts as an unelected government (nominated by elected representatives of each country). But I agree with you that this idea of an undemocratic EU is rather false and really dangerous. Everyone feels like this because nobody understands that the commission don’t represent the interests of their country but those of all the European countries…

The EU parliament can absolutely make decisions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Parliament#Powers_and... This is middle school level knowledge...

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s like saying the US started as a colony and that explains the lack of its progressive democracy and having a static constitution. Just because something started as X doesn’t mean that evolution didn’t happen. The reasons for the bureaucracy are a lot and different but come down to power sharing between the stakeholders.

There were two revolutions in the US that changed its politic course significantly. The EU has always been a beurocracy first.

You are simply confirming the parent's counter-take that the US starting as a colony was such a big influence that despite hundreds of years and 2 revolutions the US still lacks progressive democracy.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#189
post #34

I’m an Apple fan and I keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in Apple stock, and I still hope we at least get side loading out of all this. I do not believe this would be in any way detrimental to Apple - most people don’t give a shit. But for me and others like me it’d be pretty neat to do on my iPhone and iPad what I can already do on my Mac: install my own software that is not arbitrarily time limited.

This sounds like a bad idea for diversification unless you're extremely wealthy and have tens of hundreds of thousands in other things.

Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can vote for who decides things in the EU. I have no say in how Google, for example, does their business. I'm way too poor for that. I'd need literal billions of stock to get Satya Nadella's phone number =)

Good for you, I can’t and now I have to deal with endless pop ups about cookies.

That was not mandated by the GDPR but implemented by companies trying to punish users in the hope of a backlash and cancellation of the law

All the GDPR is asking is: "if you want to use some PII, you have (1) to ask consent (2) to accept user decision"

Others implementations may have included: respecting "Do Not Track" signal implemented in browser or just... not using PII at first to sell personal datas to advertiser to make more money than selling untargeted ads (so no popup needed)!

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