Keep The Internet Competitive And Innovative: Speak Out Now
from the here's-your-chance dept
There are only two weeks left to submit your comments. Act soon to ensure your voice is heard!
The European Commission needs our help. As the EC considers the future of innovation policy, they need — and want — to hear from you. To make sure the Commission doesn’t create any unintended harmful consequences, they have asked for our opinion, and the opinion of anyone that could and would be impacted by changes to internet regulation in the European Union. The Copia Institute has set up a great site for gathering this information: Don't Wreck The Net. Take a moment and share your thoughts. In the meantime, here are some of ours.
The Application Developers Alliance is a membership organization representing nearly 200 companies and over 60,000 developers — many of them small companies and entrepreneurs. It is these companies that drive innovation and grow the economy. But like you, they have neither the time nor the money to lobby the government, and we want to make sure you are aware of how this consultation could end up impacting these businesses, innovation generally, and you specifically.
Many policymakers (and reporters) seem to focus on the big players and how different types of internet regulation would impact them, but we are much more concerned about the impact on everyone else. Let's face it, the largest companies have the resources and legal experts to deal with whatever regulatory burden is put on their shoulders, but the early stage companies and small app developers do not. Here are four key reasons why we think it is important to tell European regulators Don't Wreck The Net:
- More competition: The EU Commission wants to see more competition in the market, but creating more regulations and red tape will not achieve that. As noted above, these regulations are only likely to entrench the large players who have the resources to deal with those burdens. Small upstarts could end up going out of business or not get started in the first place. In order to gain more competition, we need to tell the Commission not to add an extra regulatory burden.
- More innovation: The history of technological progress — especially on the internet — is driven by "permissionless innovation." So much innovation happens because a small group of people (or even an individual!) has a great idea and can just run with it, without having to "get approval." Increasing regulation, whether on purpose or not, often results in having to make sure your innovation "gets permission" in the form of compliance — which might also limit certain kinds of useful innovations.
- Forced user monitoring isn't helpful for anyone: Like you, we are concerned about user privacy and we take this issue very seriously. We want to ensure that users are protected and we do not want proposed legislation to require much more monitoring of user behaviour. Not only would this require massive resources for small developers, it would put user privacy at risk.
- Freedom of speech: Many of the regulatory suggestions on the table could inadvertently hold back free expression, and move the internet to more of a "broadcast" model, with only approved content going through. We believe in freedom of speech and how that helps power the internet and the apps that our members develop. The internet and mobile networks are, at their heart, communications platforms. They have grown and developed because they are tools for free expression and limiting this fundamental right would not only hold back innovation, but everyone's ability to communicate as well.
For those reasons and more, we support the Copia Institute's campaign to tell the EU Commission Don't Wreck The Net, and we recommend you check out Copia's Survey Survival Guide to help take you through the consultation. The form can seem complicated, but we believe it is worth letting the EU know how you feel about this and its impact on future innovations.
This post is sponsored by the Application Developers Alliance in support of Don't Wreck The Net
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: competition, don't wreck the net, eu, eu commission, free speech, innovation, intermediary liability, platforms, privacy
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Seems far from the whole "advertising is content" approach. This is just Selling out
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Presumably the term "sponsored by" means a paid advertisement that is not proof-read, reviewed, approved, or endorsed in any way.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
We've done these for years. In fact, some of our most popular stories have been sponsored posts. We always work to make sure that the content is relevant and good content as well. In this case, that's especially true. It is a sponsored post, but it's in support of a project by our think tank, the Copia Institute, and the content is clearly relevant for the Techdirt audience.
And of course, it is all clearly marked and disclosed. I'm not quite sure what your complaint is. If this post were NOT a sponsored post, I still think the content would fit right in with Techdirt's regular content -- which is what makes it good "advertising is content." It's about policies designed to impact the internet, privacy, competition and innovation. It's about a project that we did ourselves.
Seems far from the whole "advertising is content" approach.
Actually, seems exactly like "advertising is content." It's relevant, useful content, that also is sponsored. I'm still confused what the complaint is other than an allergic reaction to anything being "sponsored" in any way.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
That's welcome and commendable. Techdirt's sponsored articles are not a problem in the least. There needs be more of them. The problem is the 'daily deal' posts that feature products from companies whose ethical values are the opposite of everything Techdirt stands for, along with a general lack of proper disclosure for these products. Techdirt is in a prime position to clean up many common (but shady) industry practices.
For instance, software EULAs have traditionally been hidden inside the box, trapping unsuspecting buyers. But it doesn't have to be that way. Why not insist that StackSocial reveal all EULAs, TOSs, DRMs, and other contracts/restrictions of user rights up front, before they buy the product? It would not be hard to do, and would go a long way toward promoting the concepts of honesty, fairness and full disclosure.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Content filtering has never been so easy!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Sponsered stories are fine
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
But alas, to big to fire, thought by many, that many, but not by me
[ link to this | view in chronology ]