There's an interesting analogy here with Australia's Robodebt program. Robodebt used data matching (in a likely deliberately incompetent way) to also kick people off benefits that they were entitled to. Its stated aim of fraud prevention turned out to be somewhat flawed. I suspect Americans are going to see similar failings from this program, but as usual, by the time the failures are rectified a lot of lives will have been ruined.
In Australia, under the National Medicines Policy, the Australian government largely is the sole purchaser of medicines. They're then sold to the people who need them at about AU$40, or under AU$10 at concession. If you (or your family) spend more than around $1,600 ($400 concession) in a year, the cost drops to $10 or free. The fact that the government is the buyer has a huge effect on the power imbalance that you'd otherwise see. Patent reform may be helpful, but the biggest thing the US could do to limit drug prices is simply look at what everyone else has done, and copy someone else - anyone else.
This is exactly why I don't connect any TVs directly to the internet. There's a price premium for it, but I connect my TVs to AppleTVs and use them to run any of the apps I want for streaming or FTA TV channels. Also, every TV interface I've seen is hot garbage, but that's a separate problem.
The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) saw its own news app shoot to the top of the Apple App Store charts in Australia. Ironically, the original draft of this stupid law was so biased towards Murdoch that it originally excluded ABC from getting any money, and was only added later, after some folks pointed out how blatantly corrupt it was to leave them out and just funnel more money to Murdoch. But it's not just ABC that has benefited.
So this isn't the complete picture. The ABC is completely publicly funded, and is the most trusted media organisation in Australia. The conservative government hates the ABC. They've been steadily defunding it for decades, and far-right think tanks that have a pipeline from think tank to Liberal Member of Parliament want the ABC sold. This legislation weakens the ABC, because it allows the government to steadily reduce the ABC's income, which they'll do by a larger amount than any such link tax brings in.
"Equally, however, this is an important moment to remember that the proposed code was not about protecting the many organisations that generate content and are now contending with blank Facebook pages. Instead, this was tech policy-making driven by large news media companies who saw the opportunity to extract value from an unpopular opponent."
No. As I noted above, law enforcement is not called on Australian kids in schools as a routine matter. Even the race-baiting tabloid the Herald-Scum running a beat-up campaign managed to fail, with a 2015 story noting an average of 240 police attendances per year. Victoria has 2,500 schools.
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Better reset their phones
The authors of this report, as well as everyone around them, better start resetting their phones, probably once per day.
Analogy with Australia's Robodedt program
There's an interesting analogy here with Australia's Robodebt program. Robodebt used data matching (in a likely deliberately incompetent way) to also kick people off benefits that they were entitled to. Its stated aim of fraud prevention turned out to be somewhat flawed. I suspect Americans are going to see similar failings from this program, but as usual, by the time the failures are rectified a lot of lives will have been ruined.
Australia can be a good example here
In Australia, under the National Medicines Policy, the Australian government largely is the sole purchaser of medicines. They're then sold to the people who need them at about AU$40, or under AU$10 at concession. If you (or your family) spend more than around $1,600 ($400 concession) in a year, the cost drops to $10 or free. The fact that the government is the buyer has a huge effect on the power imbalance that you'd otherwise see. Patent reform may be helpful, but the biggest thing the US could do to limit drug prices is simply look at what everyone else has done, and copy someone else - anyone else.
Don't connect your 'smart' TV to the internet
This is exactly why I don't connect any TVs directly to the internet. There's a price premium for it, but I connect my TVs to AppleTVs and use them to run any of the apps I want for streaming or FTA TV channels. Also, every TV interface I've seen is hot garbage, but that's a separate problem.
I'm running as the antifa candidate
I'm moving to Florida and running as the antifa candidate for every political office I can find.
Re:
This guy seems like a right cvnt.
The bit that's missing re the ABC
So this isn't the complete picture. The ABC is completely publicly funded, and is the most trusted media organisation in Australia. The conservative government hates the ABC. They've been steadily defunding it for decades, and far-right think tanks that have a pipeline from think tank to Liberal Member of Parliament want the ABC sold. This legislation weakens the ABC, because it allows the government to steadily reduce the ABC's income, which they'll do by a larger amount than any such link tax brings in.
Re: Re: They should pay for content
Lizzie O'Shea in Overland has a typically good take on the matter.
Re: "unless the matter is criminal"
No. As I noted above, law enforcement is not called on Australian kids in schools as a routine matter. Even the race-baiting tabloid the Herald-Scum running a beat-up campaign managed to fail, with a 2015 story noting an average of 240 police attendances per year. Victoria has 2,500 schools.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Alister.
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