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Court Outlaws German Weather Service's Free Weather App

posted by martyb on Saturday March 14 2020, @01:34AM   Printer-friendly
from the monetizing-taxpayer-funded dept.

DannyB writes:

Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app

WetterOnline has won its case against Germany's national weather service. The company sued the service over the anti-competitive nature of its free weather forecast app.

The German Weather Service (DWD) will no longer be allowed to provide general weather forecasts in a free mobile phone app after a federal court ruled in favor of a private firm on Thursday.

[...] the national meteorological service will only be permitted to offer extreme weather warnings for free and that a DWD app offering general weather forecasts must contain advertisements or be purchased by users.

<sarcasm>
No national weather service could ever make a profit by giving away weather information for free.
</sarcasm>

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by istartedi on Saturday March 14 2020, @06:49AM

    by istartedi (123) on Saturday March 14 2020, @06:49AM (#971071) Journal

    I thought European governments were more resistant to this kind of thing. It was tried here in the US, and failed. Whenever somebody mentions one of the commercial weather sites, I always try to get them turned on to weather.gov and the wealth of services it provides. It tends to do so without all the slow-loading flavor of the month web designs. It's simple, clean, and as accurate or more accurate than any of the commercial dreck out there. I'm a capitalist at heart, but weather forecasts are something where the profit motive doesn't seem to provide a good product to the consumer.

    If this is allowed to stand, lots of luck getting weather in Germany without being drenched in pop-ups.

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