freedomPusher

I guess in that case they could use a foreign bank account to pay the bills?

There are a few pitfalls with that (assuming they have an account at their origin):

• if you make a foreign bank transaction that does not resemble the kind of purchase that’s typical of a vacationer, some bank’s AI algorithms will treat the transaction as fraudulent
• some small non-European banks simply do not offer international transfer services which limits customers to using a card to pull cash out of the wall
• foreign networks are not necessarily compatible with the payment machines. E.g. the US has Discover card and Asia has JPN and UnionPay. ATMs tend to support more networks than point-of-sale terminals
• banks often fleece customers on foreign exchange rates. You will usually get screwed if you do a mixed-currency transfer (on top of getting fleeced on the transfer fee which can cost more than a month or even 3 months of water). There are some special cards which get decent rates at the ATM but not in other situations. Some travelers avoid the high fees by exchanging cash in advance before they leave. Often you can get a better exchange rate when buying the foreign currency than when buying local currency using foreign currency because consumers are less desperate when planning in advance.

Theoretically someone could enter Brussels for a semi-short-term (e.g. 90 days) and need water service but as a non-resident I think all banks would refuse them an account. So Vivaqua should really comply with the law¹ and accept cash.

1. caveat: The most recent terms of service actually state that payments must be made by bank, so it’s unclear if they are breaking the law. I’ve heard that contracts can override law in Belgium which is strange. It would seem any merchant could simply make customers agree to pay electronically to circumvent the cash acceptance obligation.… or vice-versa.

Thanks for the tip. The bank issues persist. I think it’s important to not be dependent on banks for the most essential things (food, water, shelter). So people should be protesting against Vivaqua.

I would agree there is a lack of funding for public services. This is likely what has driven communes to close their counter service and only exclusively serve online people (and even then only those with the most mainstream of devices). But the lack of funding may not be primary culprit for the library issues. Whenever technology is pushed on people, there is widespread across-the-board incompetence in both public and private sectors, and likely worldwide. In the case at hand, there is a widespread irrational mentality that Tor users are criminals. From that manifests the idea that the Tor community can be shut out without discussion.

(traduction)

J'ai simplement dit aux bibliothèques qu'il y avait des problèmes de connexion et ils n'avaient aucune idée ni aucun intérêt à en discuter. À une branche WiFi n'était pas alimenté (pas de SSID) et ils ne savaient même pas comment l'allumer. Ils ne pouvaient que signaler le problème. Les techniciens semblent inaccessibles aux utilisateurs.

(original)

I simply told the libraries there were connection problems and they had no idea or any interest in discussing it. At one branch WiFi was not powered on (no SSID) and they did not even know how to turn it on. They could only report the problem. The technicians seem to be unreachable by the users.

I’m not sure how deferring the download for a later time helps. If I needed to watch the same video multiple times, storing the link would make it easy to replay the video each time the library is visited. But that doesn’t solve the problem of needing to bring the video home for viewing (where there is no suitable connection).

Library users cannot install binary apps. They are limited to javascript apps. I’m aware of Invidious and Piped. Most invidious instances are blocked (it won’t be long before all are blocked). I think Piped instances are also blocked but I did not try many. From there, if there are websites out in the wild that are not on invidious or piped instance lists, they may indeed be a solution. I’ll have to see what I can find.

Strange. Hard to tell with Lemmy what the issue is. The difference between your post and mine is you are a moderator and also you’re on the same host. I wonder if there might be a size constraint on comments inbound from the fedi as opposed to local comments.

Are these stations that originate in the UK, that are received anywhere in the UK, or that are received somewhere in particular in the UK?

It’s well known that the cat-mouse game is never ending. Publishers often seem satisfied enough when the unlicensed copy incurs a quality hit, such as a digital source being downgraded to analog. I’m fine with that. If a consumer is going to be persnickety about quality perhaps it’s fair enough that they go through hoops and/or pay more for it.

It’s interesting that publishers have started viewing file sharing as competition. They figured out that consumers are happy to pay so long as the price is reasonable. If a CD is €20 it’s worthwhile to circumvent the legal route. But if the content is legitimately available for €1 (for example) they’d rather pay than deal with the black market. It’s a shame that unlawful activity is necessary for getting fair pricing. The more suppressed file sharing becomes, the more extortionate legit prices are and the fewer consumers who can benefit.

Stallman’s warning with e-books was that it enables refined control by publishers to the point of only allowing a page to be read once, for example. No way to re-read the e-book, lend it to a friend, or pass it on to your kids. He said they won’t exploit those options right away.. they’ll get people to gradually embrace the novelty of e-books first, then gradually stop offering a paper version at all. Then when everyone is transitioned onto e-books they will abuse their power to the fullest.

It’s a somewhat similar transition with audio & video content which is getting centralized under Google’s control.

It’s a combination of problems. Pre-youtube, content creators all published their work on physical media which libraries could loan out. But Youtube has poached creators in large numbers so content is going exclusively to Google & under Google’s control. And indeed Youtube videos are uniquely accessible from the library’s PCs, and not check-outable.

Books are also an issue. I wanted a specific book. One library network was completely unable to get it. The other network can get it on paper for a fee (I don’t recall the amount). I could get the e-book version but that requires various hurdles I’ve not yet looked into. The fee is being used to pressure people to go the e-book route, which Richard Stallman has warned us about a couple decades ago and his predictions are increasingly proving to be accurate. I don’t recall ATM why I gave up completely. The e-book account probably required excessive info, like mobile phone number or email or something.

The fix i would like to see is the library permitting YT downloads via Invidious (like people with broadband at home can do). I don’t really know the nuts and bolts of the potential copyright issue and I doubt the library does either. They’re likely just taking the safe route to avoid a battle with Google.