Am I the only one a bit weirded out by a headline that's basically "X said Y" where Y is in quotes, but it turns out that X is not a well-defined entity, and Y wasn't actually said by anybody? Regardless of the content of the article, it just doesn't seem like a good look. And I donate to the EFF! It's just... weird to me.
Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
271–280 of 348 posts
Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#272The EU is also grinding forward towards classifying all gig workers controlled by "platforms" as employees, with the platform subject to all employment laws. See "Improving working conditions of persons working through digital labour platforms "[1] Background: [2] Last vote in the European parliament: 554 votes in favour, 56 votes against and 24 abstentions. This is somewhat weakened but still stronger than anything…
Uber should be worried, but also because they are no longer cheaper than the established competition (taxis) that already had the labour laws in place.
In Ireland, where Uber has its headquarters for Europe (also support staff), unlicensed taxis have been banned since 2004 or so. They recently started doing taxi booking and payment via the app, but it's all regular taxis. All taxis also have an identical pricing structure, so you can easily tell what one will cost ahead of time.
There have been competing apps for that here for a long time.
Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#273The 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.
The other problem for big tech is that most countries are modeling their tech legislation based on the EU. At this point the GDPR is something you have to consider whether you’re in the EU or not because several non EU countries have similar laws and many more are thinking of implementing them, and to the extent many haven’t already it’s because it’s unnecessary since tech companies are following GDPR already. Essent…
> Essentially GDPR has become a de facto global law at this point.
This is called the "Brussels Effect" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brussels_effect ) and much like the California Effect, leads to most everything being made to the more stringent standard because the market requiring it is so big.
Same reason most of your electronics are RoHS2 too.
Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#274Earlier quoted context omitted.
> How arrogant can you get? Could be that some of the people in here are fine with a "Parliament" that is not really a parliament and that they are fine with the unelected European Commission taking decisions that affect us all, but that has nothing to do with "arrogance", it's just them wanting to live under a non-democratic regime. And facts speak for themselves, the technocrats in Brussels do not represent anyone…
> Could be that some of the people in here are fine with a "Parliament" that is not really a parliament and that they are fine with the unelected European Commission taking decisions that affect us all, but that has nothing to do with "arrogance", it's just them wanting to live under a non-democratic regime. The commission is appointed by the member states, which are all, supposedly, democratically elected (and I onl…
> The commission is appointed by the member states, which are all, supposedly, democratically elected
Yes, that's what they say, if that's "democracy" then we certainly have a different understanding of it.
> Please, enlighten me how it was not the people of the EU who put them there.
Take 8 out of 10 people (and I'm being generous here) off the street and ask them what party they represents them in the European "Parliament" (which is not really a parliament, the same way as the Democratic Republic of Korea is not all that democratic), they won't be able to tell you (I certainly won't be able). As per the European Commission, asking them that would be futile, see my point above.
More generally speaking, this policy of putting one's head in the sand and shouting "I can't hear you! This is a democracy! The European Commission actually represents the will of the European people! Saying otherwise is vile talk!" when the European electorate starts noticing facts for what they are wont' really help this "European" project going forward, but that's the bed that they've decided to sleep in so it's up to the technocrats in Brussels now.
Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#275Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#276Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Could be that some of the people in here are fine with a "Parliament" that is not really a parliament and that they are fine with the unelected European Commission taking decisions that affect us all, but that has nothing to do with "arrogance", it's just them wanting to live under a non-democratic regime. The commission is appointed by the member states, which are all, supposedly, democratically elected (and I onl…
> The commission is appointed by the member states, which are all, supposedly, democratically elected Yes, that's what they say, if that's "democracy" then we certainly have a different understanding of it. > Please, enlighten me how it was not the people of the EU who put them there. Take 8 out of 10 people (and I'm being generous here) off the street and ask them what party they represents them in the European "Par…
> Take 8 out of 10 people (and I'm being generous here) off the street and ask them what party they represents them in the European "Parliament"
So your argument for it being undemocratic is that randos don't care enough to understand who represents them in the EU?
Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#277Does anyone know if the DMA would apply to Playstation? Shouldn't I be allowed to boot whatever software I want (Linux) on my PS5?
No, it doesn't. It was designed to work on more general purpose devices. And even then the EC is not investigating MS Sony or Nintendo as gatekeepers of their respective consoles.
IMHO, it should. And the same should apply to smart TV manufacturers. Should apply to anything that lets one install software.
Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#278Earlier 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.
Try this if you haven't already; https://consentomatic.au.dk/
I find it very useful on firefox for android, since those buttons are often tiny.
Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
Edit: This comment is wrong. I mixed up the EEC (direct predecessor to the European Union) and the EEA (like the EU, except it has Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein). > used to be named "The European Union of Coal and Steel producers", and hasn't forgotten The “European Coal and Steel Community” predates the European Economic Community, which it was separate from until the 1967 merger (a decade after the EEC was foun…
This is the internet. DON'T trust anything I've written. Look it up. You started well, missed the point that the EU commission is extremely capitalistic, protecting "their" own market, pro-immigration TO DEPRESS WAGES (not for any other reason), using money for policy targets, pro-free-trade otherwise (ie. when it comes to anyone but themselves), and generally extremely capitalistic in the usual deceitful way ... As…
> Something something communism, leftists, hyperbole. Misinformation, followed by a vague half truth about the formation of the EU. Unsubstantiated claims about murder.
I mean, what opinion are you really espousing? And what does it really have to do with the European Commission, which is a far bigger entity than a single man?
Hundreds of words to say nothing at all.
Re: Big Tech to EU: "Drop Dead"
#280Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. The purpose of a parliament is to make decisions about what the law says. Something that cannot decide what the law is, is therefore not a parliament. The EU Parliament isn't really a parliament.
The thing is, European Union isn’t a country. It’s an union of countries. The Union itself doesn’t have legislative powers. The Union dictates rules the countries must follow the laws are still written by national parliaments. To be clear, I’m absolutely not against the European Parliament having legislative powers but that would require the UE to become a federation and we are still far from this.
> The Union dictates rules the countries must follow the laws are still written by national parliaments.
You're thinking of EU Directives, which have to be transposed into national law by some deadline. EU Regulations (e.g. GDPR) are considered legally enforceable all on their own, though still have a delay.