4 ms·

The quotes at the end are excellent, they emphasize that your Microsofts and Googles of the world are going to try to throw their weight around to force the Int

The quotes at the end are excellent, they emphasize that your Microsofts and Googles of the world are going to try to throw their weight around to force the Internet to work the way works best for their business, rather than accepting a political reality, that the Internet is a communications medium, and laws are going to affect it differently in different countries, just as they do today for phone, mail, and any other medium.

vinay_ys 6y ago
Bigger companies are more compliant to the local laws than smaller companies. Simply because they have more to lose if the local government turns against them, they tread more carefully. Small companies can afford to fly under the radar just because they are small and likely catering to the fringe users and not to the masses.
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  > Bigger companies are more compliant to the local laws than smaller companies. Sort of, but partly because those bigger companies are often the ones writing the laws. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc. operate "public policy teams", whose goal is to push legislators to enshrine their business practices as law.
  - Mordisquitos 6y ago
    That may indeed be a factor, but it can happen even without active lobbying on the part of big business—all they need to do is sit back and let things flow. Be it in good faith or for cynical electioneering, lawmakers will introduce new regulatory requirements under the argument that they better protect the consumer or encourage a more competitive marketplace. However, the more complex these become, and the faster they change, the more it helps big business for they are the ones who can afford the legal teams and resources to keep track of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm nowhere near an economic laissez-fair libertarian, and I believe that strong regulation is necessary in many markets and industries. However, I'm also very wary of well-meaning but overly complex rules which do little but add a huge barrier to competition against the big players.
    - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
      This is trivial to fix: A lot of regulatory requirements should have a minimum size before they take effect. Such that a small player is approaching large player status before they need to worry about it.

vinay_ys 6y ago

Bigger companies are more compliant to the local laws than smaller companies. Simply because they have more to lose if the local government turns against them, they tread more carefully. Small companies can afford to fly under the radar just because they are small and likely catering to the fringe users and not to the masses.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
> Bigger companies are more compliant to the local laws than smaller companies. Sort of, but partly because those bigger companies are often the ones writing the laws. Microsoft, Google, Amazon, etc. operate "public policy teams", whose goal is to push legislators to enshrine their business practices as law.
- Mordisquitos 6y ago
  That may indeed be a factor, but it can happen even without active lobbying on the part of big business—all they need to do is sit back and let things flow. Be it in good faith or for cynical electioneering, lawmakers will introduce new regulatory requirements under the argument that they better protect the consumer or encourage a more competitive marketplace. However, the more complex these become, and the faster they change, the more it helps big business for they are the ones who can afford the legal teams and resources to keep track of them. Don't get me wrong, I'm nowhere near an economic laissez-fair libertarian, and I believe that strong regulation is necessary in many markets and industries. However, I'm also very wary of well-meaning but overly complex rules which do little but add a huge barrier to competition against the big players.
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    This is trivial to fix: A lot of regulatory requirements should have a minimum size before they take effect. Such that a small player is approaching large player status before they need to worry about it.