Re: too few Australian eyes
"OK, so GOogle News is shuttered."
Except it's not. What it does is brings you news about your region FROM OTHER REGIONS - all perfectly legally.
If advertisers do deals with a foreign newspaper to ensure their ads are seen by local eyeballs, how are you going to stop them doing so? (or Google USA instead of Google Australia)
And the local rags can't do a thing about it, because apart from genuinely local content, they're buying their content from the same place as everyone else - Reuters and friends (who pay a fixed rate for articles which are syndicated)
Protectionism simply doesn't work and protectionist tactics are invariably for the benefit of a monied few, not the general population.
As for Netflix, they'll simply move out of the country. It will be a VERY BRAVE GOVERNMENT which attempts to censor flows of data based on who hasn't been paying up and I'll guarantee that the real result will be a return to the days of widespread VPN streaming that used to exist before these outfits setup local shops.
Then again, this is Australia: A country where a CSIRO scientist tore apart a number of radar prosecutions because of the appallingly sloppy way Australian police were setting their speed traps up - so the Australian government passed laws declaring radar infallible in court AND further laws prohibiting government scientists appearing for the defence in cases brought by the government against its citizens.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
