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American companies in Hollywood sign business contracts with American companies in Silicon Valley and these Europeans think they can tell them what they can do.
by guelo 10y ago
American companies in Hollywood sign business contracts with American companies in Silicon Valley and these Europeans think they can tell them what they can do. People are under the strange impression that multi-million dollar entertainment products are some kind of human right. If a shoe company decided they weren't going to sell in Europe people wouldn't get all indignant like this.
- xanderstrike 10y agoI agree with you 100%. I think the reason people get huffy about online content vs. shoes for example, is there's no _technical_ reason why a video I have hosted in US shouldn't be watchable in the UK, and people intuitively understand that. There are only regulatory and political reasons which are difficult to understand and therefore get boiled down to "bullshit."
- izacus 10y agoBeing able to carry (or buy online) a bought DVD/BluRay from USA and watch it EU and then being denied the ability to buy and stream of that exact same content is the definition of "bullshit".
- DasIch 10y agoIf American companies want to sell in the EU, they have to follow EU rules. They can't afford not to, so they're going to have to follow them.
- dorfsmay 10y agoThis is exactly the same problem as the taxi medallions, there used to be a good reason for it, but now it blocks technological advances: Technically, today one company can serve anybody in the world. This used not to be true and content creators had to deal with local distributors (cinemas, TV cable companies, etc...), and those local distributors were happy to pay a premium to get local monopoly. Now newer better companies with better (awsome) models cannot serve content because of those old monopolies. Local distributors have no incentive to improve their service, and sure don't. Companies are going to need to ignore those "legal monopolies", and somehow operate illegally, in order to disturb the market and force everybody to move forward.
- matthewmacleod 10y agoThat's a really silly argument. American companies sign agreements with other American companies – that's fine. But when they want to sell into the EU, then it's fair for them to obey the law in EU states. One of the primary goals of the EU/EEA is to serve as a single market – and the entire practice of 'geoblocking' runs counter to this. Offering content to consumers in one EU state and not another segments the single market in a way that I'm surprised hasn't already been dealt with! Your shoe market analogy isn't quite apt – we're not discussing whether or not companies have to be forced to offer content to the EU, but whether they are permitted to segment the market when they do sell to the EU.
- guelo 10y agoDoes every european company have to sell all its products in all countries? Or would it only be a requirement for American entertainment companies?
- matthewmacleod 10y agoI did discuss this, but maybe I wasn't clear. Every EU company does not currently have to sell their products in every EU country. Neither does every American entertainment company. The proposals, so far as I can tell, advocate a change in EU legislation such that digital goods cannot be sold to some EU countries and not others, or that EU consumers cannot be prevented from purchasing goods offered in another member state. Any such legislation will almost certainly apply to both EU and international companies. This is an idea that is very in-line with the single market goals of the EU, and I'm surprised that you seem to think otherwise.
- DasIch 10y agoThere are proposals to eliminate geoblocking for physical goods sold over ecommerce sites as well.
- c3o 10y agoTrue, but it is important to clarify that nobody right now is proposing to force companies to ship to other EU member states if they don't want to -- making the elimination of website blocking and the obligation to accept e.g. all EU credit cards/billing addresses that is on the agenda a lot less consequential in practice.
- greiskul 10y agoThe problem is that for physical goods, if a shoe companies decides to only sell in America and not Europe, someone else could buy it America and ship it over to Europe to resell it, if there is demand for it. For intellectual propriety this option would likely be illegal.
- ascorbic 10y agoThis isn't about forcing them to sell to Europe. It's about forcing them, if they want to sell to the Europe, to sell to the whole of the EU as a single market, because that's what it's supposed to be.
- PeterisP 10y agoHow would Americans react if some major company would sell goods or services in USA, but refuse service to, say, all residents of Texas - simply request your ID (or address on your creditcard) before sale and decline if you come from a state they don't like? I get that you have very different attitude on regulations of commerce, but really, what would (in your opinion) be the American people reaction to that?
- studentrob 10y ago> what would (in your opinion) be the American people reaction to that? Probably pretty negative. Is copyright enforced in equal ways across the EU? I imagine content creators are interested in copyright laws being applied equally across regions. That includes things like subpoenas to ISPs and requests for taking down content that's illegally copied. Is all that equally possible across the EU? My guess is it isn't. In the US, copyright is enforced the same across all states.
- izacus 10y agoYes, one of the things EU brought is equal copyright enforcement across the union.
- speleding 10y agoA better analogy is this: If an American company decided to sell shoes in one European country but then tried to prevent people from reselling their shoes in another country they would actually be breaking the law.