The EU is about to kill the internet...

[Nightshade]

...as you know it.

You thought losing net neutrality was bad? Try this next act by the EU:

[Spidey]

"If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet."

[Vander]

The internet as we know it is already broken. It broke the day the first tracking cookie was created.

I'm against a lot of the things in the bill, but what I'm not against is forcing Google and Facebook et al. to pay news organizations when they link content in their news aggregators. Obviously the devil is in the details, but I think if Google etc are going to stock their virtual shelves with someone else's product, they should be paying. Google's business is cataloging the choices people make, they would be nothing without the choices to present.

[Tunnelcat]

"If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet."

Hey, Spidey's back!

By the way, if you drive a car, someone has to pay to repair the streets when they wear down. If you sit on anything but the ground, someone has to pay for the chair if it's not your own. If you get cold, someone has to pay for the labor and fuel to create heat if you don't go out and do it yourself. If you take a walk in the forest, it's free. Just watch out for the cougars, wolves and bears. If you take a walk on a city or suburban concrete sidewalk, someone has to pay for building and maintaining that sidewalk. The only sticking point to all this is if that item or product is used communally by all, not personally. Then who should get stuck with the bill? That includes the internet.

[Nightshade]

[Tunnelcat]

All that link shows in the post are the words, "Europe, unite the factions". What's your point?

[Nightshade]

...but "Count Dankula" is funny as hell as he faces free speech foes in the EU.

"WTF am I doin' here, havin' to try to defend free speech in 'uckin' France? 'uck France!"

[Nightshade]

I don't think it'll be too long before other people in the EU suddenly find out what kind of tyranny it's turning into. As soon as article 11 and 13 become EU law next spring, watch for the sudden awakening.

https://gizmodo.com/the-end-of-all-that ... 1826963763

[Nightshade]

The EU can't die fast enough:

[Top Gun]

Why? So we can double down on a bunch of meaningless lines on a map? Because that worked SO well in the 20th century, right?