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EU Commission Divided Over Nation-Specific Content Blocking
jfruh writes In theory, the European Union is supposed to act as a single national market. But one area in which practice doesn't live up to theory is geoblocking: Europeans may find that a website they can reach or content they have a legal right to stream in one EU country is blocked in another. Now two members of the EU Commission (the equivalent of a nation's cabinet) are feuding as to whether geoblocks should be eliminated: Commission Vice-President for the Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip said that "deep in my heart ... I hate geoblocking," while Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society Günther Oettinger, worrying about protecting the European film industry, said "We must not throw the baby out with the bathwater."
It's not as simple as you think.
The argument against a factual one rooted in reality - European movie making is a fairly small business, but important for each local culture. And they do indeed need protection to survive, because they are not commercially as strong as the big players who tend to dominate. And big players are well known for making deals that would destroy local movie makers by squeezing their money flows.
This isn't so much of a "feud" as beginning in the standard process of European decision making. That is seeking consensus between "common digital market" and "how do we keep our cultural producers alive in a world where their output is increasingly important to national identity".
At the start of this year VAT changed so that for digital online sales the place of supply is where the consumer belongs. This means if you sell an app/ebook/knitting pattern/recipe/tune then you have to collect two bits of non-conflicting evidence of the place of belonging of the consumer, then figure out which of the 70 or so rates of VAT across 27 countries applies for the specific product (several have special ebook rates) then you add VAT to the price and remit it to HMRC through the mini one stop shop (VATMOSS). There is no threshold for this and you can get penalties each quarter from 27 different countries if you get it wrong. Or, you can geoblock and say "screw you, I can't cope with this shit." to potential customers outside the UK.
Geoblocking is about the only sane response to VATMOSS.
And the Belgians are waffling.
I eat only the real part of complex carbohydrates.
As widely known in the EU the preliminary content types are readily available for review.
1. France: ISIS recruitment videos are to be blocked, replaced with prophet muhammad dancing hardstyle.
2. Ireland: images of sheep deemed too racy for minors, miners, and farmers to be banned.
3. Italy: links to objective reporting on church scandals to be redirected to a gucci outlet.
4. Malta: widely understood to be the only member country in the EU capable of handling the actual internet, uncensored.
5. Poland: Images of potato will be confiscated by free potato man/secret police.
6. UK: video/depictions of tea being poured into milk will be redirected to a warning page, and a stern letter will be delivered regarding scalding of the milk.
Good people go to bed earlier.