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Ars Technica is reporting on new regulations to limit region-based restrictions in the European Union:
At the heart of the European Union lies the Single Market—the possibility for people to buy and sell goods and services anywhere in the EU. So it is ironic that the European sector least constrained by geography—the digital market—is also the least unified. To remedy that situation, the European Commission has announced its Digital Single Market Strategy, which addresses three main areas.
The first is "Better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services" and includes two of the thorniest issues: geo-blocking and copyright. As the EU's strategy notes, "too many Europeans cannot use online services that are available in other EU countries, often without any justification; or they are re-routed to a local store with different prices. Such discrimination cannot exist in a Single Market."
There is strong resistance to removing geo-blocking, particularly from copyright companies that have traditionally sold rights on a national basis and which therefore want geo-blocking to enforce that fragmentation. The Pirate Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Julia Reda, quoted a fellow MEP justifying geo-blocking as follows: "I can’t buy Finnish bread in any German supermarket or bakery. Far too few people here would buy it, so the market doesn't offer it to me. And you don’t see me demanding that the European Commission bloody-well make that product available to me."
Julia Reda responded to those who defend geo-blocking by actually buying Finnish bread online without incident or issue.
The European Union's Digital Single Market Strategy covers several other areas, including Telecom/network investment and management, copyright reform, and future goals for a single EU digital market.
As an American, it's hard to believe government could possibly work on behalf of voters, so let's see if this initiative can make it into law. But it is an enticing idea.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Grishnakh on Saturday March 28 2015, @11:03PM
Oh please; when was the last time the American government actually did something on behalf of voters, rather than moneyed interests? I honestly can't think of anything they did which didn't benefit some campaign donors.
This is something that cannot happen in America: the EU government doing something which the moneyed interests (the copyright cartels) don't want, and which will hurt their profitability, for no reason other than it's good for the regular people. This never happens in America these days.
As for roads, sewage, police, etc., they spend money on roads because it benefits politically-connected construction companies (why do you think it costs such ridiculous sums to build roads, and they're always doing construction on roads that really didn't need it that much?). And police? Have you not noticed that the police in this country are hyper-violent thugs who execute people on a whim? How is that helping anyone except the ruling class?
The fundamental problem is that the US is nothing like the EU, and really resembles someplace like Zimbabwe or Somalia more. While every country has some corruption, in the US it's blatant and obvious, just like many 3rd-world hellholes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2015, @07:56PM
The affordable care act? That's helped people I know in ways that now make care affordable. I think social security for the elderly also is helpful...
I am too small of a person to be able to help reduce abuses of the system that other people may involve themselves with. I can do little aside from not abusing the systems myself, and appreciate the few good things I can easily point out besides road maintenance and fire/police response when needed.
I am not sure what you expect the government to do, considering half the country wants to shut down the other half. That doesn't leave much in the way of benefits the government can provide for the individual voting public.
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Monday March 30 2015, @05:28AM
I have something purely anecdotal and your point still stands completely.
When we still lived in the States, my wife and I went to a meeting because they wanted to build a new library. (Big bucks involved.) Wanting to know more about it, we went. After the board pitched their idea and half-heartedly asked for our opinions (of which they weren't really interested because they had already made their decision without public inclusion), a guy stood up and point-by-point ripped them a new a one. I spoke to him and found out he was a local representative. I went home and did some research. I liked this guy.
Nine months, later, I bump into him at another meeting and he remembered me. Again, he proceeded to logically tear down plans that were not well thought out. And when I spoke to him afterwards, he remembered me by name even though I had only met him and interacted with him the one time before. It was the first time I had ever met a person with a memory like that for faces and names and I realized how talented most politicians probably were.
When it came time to vote, I made sure to vote for him. Unfortunately, he lost. But, yes, for a brief moment in the past 10 years, there was a beacon of light in a little town somewhere in the U.S. They do exist.
Again, it doesn't negate your point at all. I just wanted to bring a small ray of light into a subject that is normally very dark.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday March 30 2015, @05:43PM
Oh please; when was the last time the American government actually did something on behalf of voters, rather than moneyed interests?
The FCC Title II decision happened less than a month ago.
Evaluate your confirmation bias.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Monday March 30 2015, @06:58PM
Ok, name something before that. The jury's still out on that one anyway; the ruling only just came out. Finally, it does benefit moneyed interests, namely places like Google and Netflix. The net-neutrality fight was largely a fight between behemoths, with the ISP cartel on one side and the internet titans on the other. Personally, I'm on the side of the internet titans here, but I'm not going to pretend they're not moneyed interests whose interests only sometimes coincide with my own.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday March 30 2015, @09:05PM
Ok, name something before that.
Sure, one more example is will definitely convice the guy who already moved the goal posts.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Tuesday March 31 2015, @04:49PM
You haven't provided an example. You gave an "example" which I already showed benefits moneyed interests, so it doesn't qualify. It doesn't help that the ink hasn't even dried and it hasn't been put in place yet.