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Noting the EU's horrible effort at providing a comment form, Mike Masnick and company have constructed their own page to help you tell EU legislators to not screw up the online world.
The Copia Institute is a new, digital-native think tank from Mike Masnick and the team behind Techdirt.
Europe is considering new regulations that threaten to undermine the internet as we know it.
The European Commission is asking the public critical questions about the future of our online world, but these questions are buried throughout a lengthy consultation survey that will probably make your eyes water. We need you to tackle the survey and make your voice heard. It's not easy, so we're here to help.
Go ahead, take a look at the public consultation. It's got five pages of oblique questions and too much smallprint for anyone's taste. But it's really all asking one thing: WHAT ARE THE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF SERVICE PROVIDERS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD? Our survey survival guide helps you overcome the bureaucratic barrier and answer that question, because it's at risk of being ignored.
This isn't just for European companies--it impacts everyone online.
[...] Don't let a bad survey bore you into silence.
Thanks to one confusing and poorly-designed survey, the consultation is receiving very little response from the people most affected by this important issue--entrepreneurs, service providers, innovators, and the public. Don't let lawmakers shake the foundations of the internet without your input. The public consultation closes on December 30th.
Okay, are you ready? Take a deep breath, open up our survey survival guide, and make your voice heard.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 12 2015, @11:57AM
...isn't bad at all, though they might wise up on their use of javascript.
These are some of the questions asked, with simple Yes, No, I don't know answer options:
Do you think that online platforms should ensure, as regards their own activities and those of the traders that use them, more transparency in relation to:
a) information required by consumer law (e.g. the contact details of the supplier, the main characteristics of products, the total price including delivery charges, and consumers' rights, such as the right of withdrawal)?
b) information in response to a search query by the user, in particular if the displayed results are sponsored or not?
c) information on who the actual supplier is, offering products or services on the platform
d) information to discourage misleading marketing by professional suppliers (traders), including fake reviews?
e) is there any additional information that, in your opinion, online platforms should be obliged to display?
(500 chars input field)
Have you experienced that information displayed by the platform (e.g. advertising) has been adapted to the interest or recognisable characteristics of the user?
Do you find the information provided by online platforms on their terms of use sufficient and easy-to-understand?
... and so on -- pretty clear to me.
According to the thinktank [copia.is], sponsored by Google and Andreessen Horowitz among others, the above questions "signal an interest in creating heavy-handed regulatory regimes surrounding such services, interfering with their ability to innovate and serve their users ... The desire to regulate the relationship between online services and the businesses that use them disregards contract litigation and other private dispute resolution mechanisms that are extensively and effectively used by these parties. ... Data portability is a principle that should be supported and encouraged among online services, but strict regulatory requirements will inhibit innovation in this area, not promote it. "
Yadda-yadda-yadda.