May 04, 2015

Brussels and US, when ruling on cyber space, never forget it is we, the undefended accessed, who most need assistance.

Sir, Carl Bildt holds that “Digital mercantilism — a misguided attempt to regulate away competition, or build up new boundaries to achieve some imaginary sovereignty in cyberspace — can only hurt Europe’s ability to innovate, compete and succeed in this new world.” “Brussels should resist the urge to rig the rules of cyber space” May 4.

Absolutely, but that does not mean all is fine and dandy.

Bildt writes: “Google, Facebook and Twitter have been extremely successful in establishing services that have a commanding lead in the markets in which they operate… not by exploiting the advantages of incumbency, but through groundbreaking innovations that have led users to flock to the services they provide.”

Indeed, but those companies did not create the internet Mr. Bildt; and all of us flocking to obtain their services are paying a price for it, by means of allowing these to access information about us, in order for them to resell advertising access to us. And that price could be reasonable or not.

If it constrains too much our ability to access information freely, the price would be way too high.

And it is in the area of unfair restrictions in the competition for information of all sort, that we, the undefended accessed, sure need some assistance from regulators, whether European or American, or from anywhere else on the globe where they might be hosted.

PS. Should I have a copyright over my own preferences, so that I could share in the ad-revenues from advertising directed to me, because of my preferences?

@PerKurowski