Slashdot Mirror
Spain Codifies the "Right To Broadband"
Reader adeelarshad82 writes to lets us know that Spain has now codified a "Right to Broadband," thus following the lead of Finland. Spain's industry minister announced that citizens will have a legal right from 2011 to be able to buy broadband Internet access of at least 1 Mb/sec at a regulated price wherever they live. The telecoms operator holding the so-called "universal service" contract would have to guarantee it could offer "reasonably" priced broadband throughout Spain.
This is the Union that gave us regulations on Banana Curvature, costing fruit growers millions in lost produce, and then 10 years later repealed the regulations, just as everyone had installed Banana Straightening Machines. (okay, I made the last bit up, but you get the picture).
The EU can and will do anything it sees fit, and if countries don't follow suite, they get their subsidies fucked with, or huge fines levied for non-compliance with EU Directives. Of course, recently they seem to have found a new cash cow levying billons of dollars in extortion money^W^Wfines against MS and Intel.
Speaking as a 'modern hipster web dev', I think our apps are unpopular here because we tend to be better looking, more popular, more intelligent and earn more money than the average Slashbot/geek with a chip on his shoulder.
Well, let's see. I guess we should read the fine print: anyone that works for, owns stock in, or sells to a telco has less rights than someone who is entitled to free broadband.
Way to go Spain. Let me know when there's a point to someone actually working for a telco. Make getting enough stuff for free a right, you'll have a hard time finding someone actually willing to do it.
This is my sig.
Rights don't come from the Man in the Sky. Rights come from being human beings. Like instincts. They are a natural consequence of man's desire to be liberated.
However when you rob your neighbors wallets to buy some poor person a car, or house, or internet, then you've infringed upon your neighbors' freedoms (theft of labor). Nobody has a right to harm another in this fashion.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
>>>People who talk about "rights" are selfish, self-entitled, and most importantly, clueless.
Spoken like a man who knows absolutely nothing about the last 2500 years of philosophy. YOU are the one who is "clueless" and don't seem to realize it. "Right to life" simply means "right not to be killed". It doesn't mean you have the right to rob your neighbors' wallets and buy yourself replacement organs to extend your life eternally. No man has a right to harm another.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Why should Fox be entitled to freedom of the Press?
You are welcome on my lawn.
If fox told lies, the left would have sued them out of existence long ago, after all you guys aren't right about anything, and you only tool since you are wrong, it silencing those that are critical of your moronic views. Grow up or move to china/russsia/cuba/iran if you want left wing propaganda to be the only thing on the air, don't try to turn our nation into your idiotic socialists paradise.
>>>You could say the exact same thing on *every* tax.
No. A tax that benefits every citizen, such as for a protective police force, is legitimate tax.
Taxes that only benefit ~5$ of the population (i.e. giving them free stuff), are illegitimate.
It's theft of labor from the whole to a few - just as surely as serfdom was theft of labor.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall