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Tech Firms, Don't Fence Us In

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the drawling-the-regulatory-battle-lines dept.

Vitaly Friedman writes "A proposed broadcasting law by the European Commission that would regulate emerging media formats in the same way as traditional broadcasting companies draws fire from the companies who say they will be hurt by a one-size-fits-all mentality. From the article 'An alliance of companies, including ITV, Yahoo, Vodafone, Intel and Cisco Systems, warned that a European Commission proposal to impose rules for traditional broadcasters on new media providers could have "unintended consequences" and hurt investment.'"

5 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. As far as I understand by JanneM · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As far as I understand it, the proposed rules simply say that any advertising, hate speech or other content rules already applied today for other media in Europe would apply for the same media when online. Where's the problem?

    --
    Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
    1. Re:As far as I understand by Psion · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why is it even necessary? I mean, other than to give already bloated bureaucracies an excuse to help themselves to another bite of intrusive power....

  2. What is hate speech? by Shivetya · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That is the problem. Hate speech is the catch-all that can be used to shut down any speech which someone or some government entity determines to be offensive.

    When promoting hate speech rules the people behind them will always use the most extreme examples of speech they can find. Yet when applied it never ceases to amaze me what gets branded under the category. You will also see groups label the speech of others as "hate speech". With the help of their sister groups they can repeat this claim enough to where people are so used to hearing it they start to believe it true.

    Remove the "hate speech" exception and it might be a plausible rule, leave it there and suddenly you may find one day that you cannot speak out against your "righteous leaders"

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    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
  3. Say it isn't so by $RANDOMLUSER · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I like the notion that a law could have "unintended consequences" and that this is somehow a novel concept. All laws have unintended consequences, it's the nature of the beast.

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    No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
  4. Re:Link with better reporting of the story. by eMbry00s · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Commercials directed at children are an example of what would (hopefully) be banned. It's already illegal here in Sweden, but the commercial stations have solved that by broadcasting from the UK (to us) instead. Other than that, I'm entirely against any form of censorship.