Re: RE: Honestly, I think Uber have kind of a point here...
I am in fact a yankee reader of El Reg, and unlike you, I'm not too chicken to hide behind a Guy Fawkes mask when I say things that may be controversial.
I was pointing out that your sarcasm was inappropriate. Even governments must look at bending when they enact laws which are out-of-touch with reality. Just a a Celtic King cannot command the tide to cease rising, and attempting to make alcohol a prohibited substance worked out very poorly in the U.S. the last time it was attempted, and just as the sharing of movies, TV shows and music continues at flank speed on the internet despite massive governmental and business crackdowns and attempts to regulate them, the technology that enables on-demand taxi services can't be banished into the ether. It's a service people obviously want; both riders and drivers, and it threatens the very core of the traditional taxi industry because it has basically none of the traditional overhead so associated.
That's both a good thing, and a bad thing; a good thing in that it forces taxicab companies and governments to rethink the way they conduct and regulate taxi services, but also a bad thing in the way that Uber, et al, are becoming so prosperous by pursuing levels of "fuck our employees" that would make Sam Walton say "son, that's going too far."
Biting the hand that feeds IT
