The EU, the organization that believes government can never be too big has decided that Internet TV needs regulation.
In a document that is amusingly titled the Television Without Frontiers directive, EU bureaucrats want to include any video content on the web within the revised regulations - making your average YouTube contributor subject to the same rules as the BBC or other traditional broadcaster.
Just a week after the founders of YouTube pocketed over $1.6 billion as a result of their innovation and guts, the EU wants to regulate any similar content driven vox populi into the dust before it pops up.
The EU serves no useful purpose except to employ Euroweenies that can’t be trusted with a price gun in the local quickee-mart. To see what the actual directive looks like, see it here and then ponder the weight of resources that have been spent on this already. What really bothers them is that the web has harnessed the power of visual images with YouTube, MySpace etc. There are no borders for television/visual content now.
Since the EU has never looked at an idea it didn’t think could be improved with more regulations, this was easy for them. They simply completed a multi-lingual application form (in Franco-blue or black-forest ink only - in triplicate - press hard) to get a delivery of industrial grade EU-approved red tape with which they can tie down their poor benighted population even further.
The EU is crushing what remaining life spark is left in the decaying old world, sad for them but good news for their competitors.
