4 ms·

He knows the only way he wins this is if the current US Administration goes to bat for him.

ben_w 9mo ago
At this point, I'm wondering to what extent all this batting is driving the EU calls for digital sovereignty, and to what extent those calls will be turned into actions.
- tjwebbnorfolk 9mo ago
  EU is extremely good at "calling for" things to happen. I haven't seen a single one of those things actually happen.
- wmf 9mo ago
  EU can't build so if they firewall themselves from the US they'll just have a pretty empty Internet.
  - ben_w 9mo ago
    The other night I was thinking about graphene. Not the OS, the material. ‘We considered patenting; we prepared a patent and it was nearly filed. Then I had an interaction with a big, multinational electronics company. I approached a guy at a conference and said, “We’ve got this patent coming up, would you be interested in sponsoring it over the years?” It’s quite expensive to keep a patent alive for 20 years. The guy told me, “We are looking at graphene, and it might have a future in the long term. If after ten years we find it’s really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us.” That’s a direct quote.' - https://innovationedge.com/2010/10/13/graphene-patent-geim/ https://innovationedge.com/2010/10/13/graphene-patent-geim/ So, we absolutely can get stuff done, the Americans just keep buying us up (DeepMind) or stealing it or using initimidation (Graphene) or espionage (of Airbus for benefit of Boeing way back).
    - solenoid0937 9mo ago
      > So, we absolutely can get stuff done, [but ...] But you have to keep in mind that this is the same as not being able to get stuff done :) Economies don't exist in a vacuum. If a US company can buy an EU company out, * business conditions in the EU are not favorable enough for people to want to grow their business in the EU (they would rather sell to the US); * there are no EU companies that are competitive enough to counteroffer (meaning the EU has not created an environment to grow competitive businesses). "Getting stuff done" isn't determined in a vacuum, so unless the EU totally isolates its economy it has to deal with the fact that it needs to actually encourage innovation and business to be competitive and "get stuff done" on the world stage.
      - ben_w 9mo ago
        > so unless the EU totally isolates its economy The US is isolating itself, that really only leaves China for Europe to worry about on these points. China is absolutely capable of replacing the US as buyer of all the interesting companies, European nations can absolutely fail this if they forget that.
  - jimnotgym 9mo ago
    We actually have websites in Europe, including the very first one. We had more before Reddit and Metabook centralised so many. I think we will be fine thanks
thrance 9mo ago
Indeed, but that doesn't mean I have to be fine with that. He already had a perfectly good case against that fine, but using the occasion to cozy up to actual fascists completely discredits him to anyone serious.
epolanski 9mo ago
He can't win this, at best he can quit Italy and not offer any services there.
- waffleiron 9mo ago
  Which will makes any non-US company reconsider using Cloudflare real quick.

ben_w 9mo ago

At this point, I'm wondering to what extent all this batting is driving the EU calls for digital sovereignty, and to what extent those calls will be turned into actions.

tjwebbnorfolk 9mo ago
EU is extremely good at "calling for" things to happen. I haven't seen a single one of those things actually happen.
wmf 9mo ago
EU can't build so if they firewall themselves from the US they'll just have a pretty empty Internet.
- ben_w 9mo ago
  The other night I was thinking about graphene. Not the OS, the material. ‘We considered patenting; we prepared a patent and it was nearly filed. Then I had an interaction with a big, multinational electronics company. I approached a guy at a conference and said, “We’ve got this patent coming up, would you be interested in sponsoring it over the years?” It’s quite expensive to keep a patent alive for 20 years. The guy told me, “We are looking at graphene, and it might have a future in the long term. If after ten years we find it’s really as good as it promises, we will put a hundred patent lawyers on it to write a hundred patents a day, and you will spend the rest of your life, and the gross domestic product of your little island, suing us.” That’s a direct quote.' - https://innovationedge.com/2010/10/13/graphene-patent-geim/ https://innovationedge.com/2010/10/13/graphene-patent-geim/ So, we absolutely can get stuff done, the Americans just keep buying us up (DeepMind) or stealing it or using initimidation (Graphene) or espionage (of Airbus for benefit of Boeing way back).
  - solenoid0937 9mo ago
    > So, we absolutely can get stuff done, [but ...] But you have to keep in mind that this is the same as not being able to get stuff done :) Economies don't exist in a vacuum. If a US company can buy an EU company out, * business conditions in the EU are not favorable enough for people to want to grow their business in the EU (they would rather sell to the US); * there are no EU companies that are competitive enough to counteroffer (meaning the EU has not created an environment to grow competitive businesses). "Getting stuff done" isn't determined in a vacuum, so unless the EU totally isolates its economy it has to deal with the fact that it needs to actually encourage innovation and business to be competitive and "get stuff done" on the world stage.
    - ben_w 9mo ago
      > so unless the EU totally isolates its economy The US is isolating itself, that really only leaves China for Europe to worry about on these points. China is absolutely capable of replacing the US as buyer of all the interesting companies, European nations can absolutely fail this if they forget that.
- jimnotgym 9mo ago
  We actually have websites in Europe, including the very first one. We had more before Reddit and Metabook centralised so many. I think we will be fine thanks

thrance 9mo ago

Indeed, but that doesn't mean I have to be fine with that. He already had a perfectly good case against that fine, but using the occasion to cozy up to actual fascists completely discredits him to anyone serious.

epolanski 9mo ago

He can't win this, at best he can quit Italy and not offer any services there.

waffleiron 9mo ago
Which will makes any non-US company reconsider using Cloudflare real quick.