The digital countermove to Trump tariffs | America’s mid-air dismantling of the global system of trade represents a one-time chance to compete (www.ft.com)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Anticircumvention laws are the reason no one can sell you a “jailbreaking” tool so your printer is able to recognise and use cheaper, generic ink cartridges. It’s why farmers couldn’t repair their own John Deere tractors until recently and why people who use powered wheelchairs can’t fix their vehicles, even down to minor adjustments like customising the steering handling.

These laws were made in the US but they are among America’s most successful exports. The US trade representative has lobbied — overtly in treaty negotiations; covertly as foreign legislatures debated their IP laws — for America’s trading partners to enact their own versions.

The quid pro quo: countries that passed such laws got tariff-free access to American markets.

With the tariffs being imposed at Trump's whim, it's worthwhile for the rest of the world to revisit their laws which limit peoples' ability to control the software on devices they own.

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 4 months ago

The author keys into some points critically important that most don't think about. America imports more manufactured goods and raw materials than it exports. As the administration has endlessly gone on about. However, it exports more ‘services’ than any country in the world. I think Trump and Lutnick simply are assuming that won't change or come under discussion. Most of these American ‘services’ exports are heavily advantaged in favour of American exporters to the UK and the EU. That’s because these ‘services’ are effectively not taxed, nor regulated. (With a few notable exceptions.) That’s because, in the EU particularly, there has historically been a deference to America—for implied military defense against Russian attack. The Oval office meeting w Zelensky, together with ignoring Denmark re: Greenland, and Canadian 51st state rhetoric has however finally started breaking the wall. Thereby freeing the UK and Europe to trend towards now taxing and regulating such American ‘services’. That will allow UK and EU competing ‘services’ to flourish. Because, essentially, the anti-circumvention laws, besides making certain American billionaires ridiculously rich, mainly serve to inhibit innovation.

this post was submitted on 01 May 2025

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