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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: 2) by tibman on Sunday March 29 2015, @07:59PM
The FCC allocates unlicensed radio spectrum that any citizen can use. The most popular wireless devices in existence live in those unlicensed spectrums (i am intentionally ignoring cell phones). Cordless phones and wifi might never have taken off if companies had their way and owned the frequencies. Some years ago the FCC sold off a bunch of the old UHF spectrum and the public got pretty screwed. Most of the sold spectrum is still unused. The FCC is going to auction again this year (2015) and Tom Wheeler has promised the public will get more unlicensed space. How much depends on how much spectrum the FCC can "buy back" from various companies.
Anyways, if you want to point to things the government has given its people in the last 30 years you will have to find things that only came into existence in the last 30 years or so. Even then a lot of what the government does is regulate said thing. GPS access might fall into something the US Gov has given away recently.
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(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Sunday March 29 2015, @09:51PM
The FCC...established 1934...Try again.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Sunday March 29 2015, @10:05PM
Next time, please read the entire comment you are replying to. Or just don't reply. I doubt you had wifi in 1934. I also specifically said new frequencies from the old UHF spectrum are opening for public use this year.
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