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Estonian President Expresses Desire For More Digitally-Integrated Europe (arstechnica.com)
In a wide-ranging interview with Ars Technica, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik talked about European Digital Single Market (DSM), an ambitious goal that seeks to make commerce flow as smoothly across the 28-member block as it does in the United States. He cites the example of iTunes. From the report: What Estonia and Finland are doing is a step towards the DSM -- but there remain all kinds of national-level laws that stop Europe from being truly unified. "Take iTunes," President Ilves continued. "iTunes are based on credit cards. Credit cards are national. I cannot buy an iTunes record for my wife who has a Latvian credit card. I cannot buy her an iTunes record because I have an Estonian iTunes. This is true of virtually everything that is connected to digital services. And certainly this is why Estonia is at the forefront of the European Digital Single Market. As I like to say, it's easier to ship a bottle of Portuguese wine from southern Portugal in the Algarve and sell it in northern Lapland, than it is for me to buy an iTunes record across the Estonian-Latvian border."The report is worth a read in its entirety.
Thank you very much. Nor do I want any stupid laws influenced by the big brother in the west.
Why do we need restrictions on moving physical and digital goods across borders? For that matter, eliminate barriers to labor crossing borders, too. Tariffs and customs duty are harmful by artificially inflating prices. The solution is a truly global market. Restricting trade and commerce at international borders results in a suboptimal economy because goods and labor can't move freely to meet demand.
Is that some surgical procedure done to very fat women so they don't upset the balance of the globe?
the greatest strength of the USA.
Great blog http://www.dreamland.travel/turisticki-vodic/cat/turisticki-vodic/
Damn it's good to see the GNAA back on Slashdot. Keep these posts coming!
The huge move from analog to digital for media should have made it easier to cross national boundaries. Instead, the media companies have chosen intentionally to make it more difficult, slicing and dicing territories to optimize profit regardless of the effects upon ease of use.
1. Quit using the DEC logo for DRM stuff.
2. Can't he just burn the music to CD and re-rip?
At least if we are talking Swedish Lapland, customs will intercept the shipment of wine, an hold it for weeks, and tax it so it is more expensive than locally bought (very expensive) wine, and also force you to pay for the joy of being taxed, a taxation fee of around €13 last time I got taxed.
The biggest surprise from this story is that it turns out Estonia is a real place. Who knew?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Unfortunately, I also live in a country that made the mistake to join the EU, hopefully not forever. I'd like to inform you that I don't want a "unified" digital (or physical) european market, I would definitely survive without iTunes, I don't feel the need to watch Estonian movies, I don't see you as a "brother" or "compatriot", and I also don't want to waste my country's public money in higher defence expenditures because of your anti-Putin hysteria. Thanks.
Toomas Hendrik are his first names. His full name is Toomas Hendrik Ilves. Good job editors.
than it is for me to buy an iTunes record across the Estonian-Latvian border.
If Apple doesn't understand Visa or American Express, then there is not much to be done here. Perhaps a trip to the local bank would help Mrs. Hendrik to integrate better into the global credit based consumer festivities.
Estonian President Toomas Hendrik talked
In other news, Barack Hussein is the way Slashdot editors refer to their president.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
How does his having an iTunes account demonstrate digital services "stop Europe from being truly unified"?
He just euclidated the problem: iTunes will sell his wife a product but won't sell him the same product. It's called geo-blocking and is the hypocrisy of copyright licenses. Yes, Europe needs to be unified, but not because credit cards are somehow faulty. I'm sure everyone here has used a credit card from their local bank to buy something in another country. Credit cards work, he's a moron.
Forcing IP holders to offer a standardized license to every country is an excellent idea. Since governments cannot change the licenses and contracts that importers bought, how will he create a single digital-services market, after the fact?
a lot of their problems stem from protectionism of national economies and cultures. the protectionist rules in place are actually partitioning each country from one another which makes it impossible to have unified anything. to have a unified marketplace, you need a unified government.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I thought we settled that nonsense 70 years ago.
Contracts that granted exclusivity in Czechoslovakia would probably be interpreted as granting exclusivity in both of its successor states, namely the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Likewise with the successor states of Yugoslavia. Cases of unification, such as absorption of the DDR (East Germany) into the BRD (West Germany), pose a more interesting legal challenge. Have you read about any cases where different companies ended up with exclusivity in BRD and DDR at the time of unification?
... and I would really like to buy them extended iCloud storage. Well, tough luck there. Even if I had a local credit card, their particular country does not even have iCloud. I ended up switching my mother to US iTunes Store and re-downloading all the apps that are in both stores and telling her she might never be able to update those that are in the EU store only. Why is this even a problem? WTF?
Not even mentioning the fact, as written in the article, that if my parents tell me about a new record by a local popular artist, I am out of luck, because I am locked into the US iTunes Store. Just fix it, damnit.
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
Given the coming Brexit referendum, and other nationalistic movements on the rise, what we will get is a more dis-integrated Europe...