I’m getting tired of waking up to headlines of another major data security gap. The whole internet economy is getting tired of it. Big platforms, ISPs, regulators, politicians; everyone agrees that something’s broken and that we need to fix it.
Read MoreGuest Post by Czech Developer Petr Nalevka The European Commission substantially intervened in the operating system competition between Google and Apple to the detriment of Android. That is bad news for…
Read MoreThe Developers Alliance is disappointed at the European Commission’s decision in its Android investigation. Today’s decision will inevitably lead to changes to Android’s free, open source model which, in time, will harm the Android ecosystem, rather than help it grow.
Read MoreUnlike the billionaires driving this case, independent developers and startups are not organized or equipped to effectively represent themselves before the European Commission, and so the Developers Alliance has taken up their cause. Google is a member of the Alliance, it’s true, as is Facebook, Intel, Ford and a pair of U.S.-based Internet service providers. But that short list discounts the much larger list of members from mid-size developers to startups. Vinje, on the other hand, does not — and should not — speak for the developer community on Android or anything else.
Read MoreTwo related items crossed my desktop today, either of which will seriously disrupt how developers use app stores to get their software to market. In the U.S., the Supreme Court agreed to weigh in on whether Apple can be sued by consumers for the markup it places on applications purchased through its App Store. Meanwhile, in the EU, Google is defending Android from charges that its licensing arrangements, which require device pre-loading of select Google apps, are anti-competitive. The overlap is that Google’s Android alternative is likely to mimic the closed ecosystem that has Apple under fire, and which might be open to class-action lawsuits from multiple directions.
Read More2018 marks the ten year anniversary of the app ecosystem. In 2008 both Apple’s App Store and Google Play were launched, radically changing the way consumers interface with their devices.
Since then, the app economy has grown significantly and at a very fast pace, as shown by the latest report on the state of play in the EU app economy, published by the European Parliamentary Research Service (EPRS) earlier this month.
Read MoreImagine if Github, a web-based platform that allows users to upload and share code, had to filter through each content upload before it was posted to ensure some part of it wasn’t already claimed by copyright holders. Imagine having to do that on your platform for each piece of public user uploaded content. That future is not far off if the European Parliament passes a copyright Directive set for a vote in mid-late June.
Read MoreOn 31 May the Developers Alliance joined over 55 industry groups representing all sectors of the technology industry to caution against the ePrivacy Regulation being considered by European institutions.
Read MoreA report commissioned by the Developers Alliance and produced by London Economics shows that the proposed ePrivacy Regulation being discussed in Brussels is potentially costly, definitely confusing, and likely to reduce innovation and investment across the EU. The total costs could soar as high as €551.9 billion annually in reduced turnover, with an impact far beyond the technology sector.
Read MoreThere are hundreds of emergency services applications in use across Europe, but they can currently only be used locally. In 2018, this should be a cause for alarm, so public safety organisation, EENA, together with Beta 80, Deveryware and the Developers Alliance, is going to do something about it.
Read MoreDevelopers Alliance Press Release on the Publication of the European Commission Proposal for a Regulation on Promoting Fairness and Transparency for Business Users of Online Intermediation Services and Online Search Engines in the Digital Single Market
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