Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app

Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by tpetry on Friday March 13, 2020 @05:37AM (#22565916)

We‘ve got a problem in germany with anything spent for by tax money. If something is done by tax money and some private company is doing the same with their own money the will go to court because the other one has an unfair advantage.

For example we have some tv channels being run by tax money (not absolutely correct, its a forced pay for everyone not included in taxes but its basically the same) without any ads. Any many free private channels fiddled with ad pauses. The tax ones wanted to put their movies online in a netflix style for free long before netflix but the private ones wonnin court because it would be unfair. Nowadays they are allowed to put them online but only for 30 days after airing in tv, everything else would be unfair to the real low-quality free channels...

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by mikorym on Friday March 13, 2020 @06:02AM (#22566019)

If that is the argument, then I think the priority now for the DWD is to offer a cheaper and better product.

I think this also means that the DWD can now be more business orientated and perhaps grow their income?

I am not German, but I am trying to see whether this can be to the DWD's advantage.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by travisoneill1 on Friday March 13, 2020 @10:12AM (#22567355)

Lets say that the government and DWD developed equivalent apps but DWD did it at half the cost. If the government app has to charge users based on its costs, then it will be twice as expensive, and lose out to the more efficient private company. But if they are just allowed to give it out to consumers for free (which a private company can't do) then it will dominate the market even though it is not the best use of resources. I assume that is the rationale for this law.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by mikorym on Friday March 13, 2020 @10:39AM (#22567583)

There is another analogy to this: Meteoblue. [1]

Maybe they can similarly spin off the weather app into a company with some kind of status that retains some of its original purpose (which I guess is supplying weather information to German nationals).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteoblue

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by xenonite on Friday March 13, 2020 @10:33AM (#22567535)

If you meant DWD (=government) did it at double the cost, then this makes sense.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by nybble41 on Friday March 13, 2020 @12:38PM (#22568691)

I believe travisoneill1 was confusing the government weather service DWD with the firm filing the suit, WetterOnline.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by hef19898 on Friday March 13, 2020 @06:28AM (#22566161)

Maybe. Not legal expert, but if I remember well, they public broadcasting services were sued (?) for having to many paid commercials.

So I could at least imagine the DWD being attacked if they sell their app for 10 cents or so.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by vgaldikas on Friday March 13, 2020 @09:49AM (#22567210)

Well if they do it for cheaper, won't it as well open them up to the same 'unfair advantage' accusations?

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by luckylion on Friday March 13, 2020 @09:16AM (#22566993)

> DWD is to offer a cheaper and better product.

How? Their product is "free", unless you count taxes. They could make it "cheaper" by keeping it free and not using taxes.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by abetusk on Friday March 13, 2020 @11:07AM (#22567824)

But couldn't this same argument be applied to healthcare and education? Why is healthcare and education exempt but some other industry not?

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by lumberjack on Friday March 13, 2020 @11:28AM (#22568024)

They are not. They are being slowly dismantled, but they are very popular so they have to do it slowly to not cause too much protest.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by barneygumble742 on Friday March 13, 2020 @11:44AM (#22568141)

This is in Germany or the U.S.?

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by lumberjack on Friday March 13, 2020 @01:39PM (#22569195)

Western Europe, actually. Germany, UK and Netherlands in particular but I'm sure the trend is the same in other countries.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by risyachka on Friday March 13, 2020 @09:24AM (#22567039)

I can see how this can have sense. But it doesn't.

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by inferiorhuman on Friday March 13, 2020 @05:57AM (#22565997)

would be unfair to the real low-quality free channels...

There are German comedy channels?

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by 7177Y on Friday March 13, 2020 @06:01AM (#22566017)

Hey! There is nothing funny about German humour!

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by chrisbennet on Friday March 13, 2020 @10:38AM (#22567577)

Where would we be without humor?

Germany

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Re:Court outlaws German Weather Service's free weather app by unethical_ban on Friday March 13, 2020 @03:07PM (#22570001)

It's shit like this that gets people to go from "Capitalism needs tweaks" to "It is rotten to the core".

It should be completely obvious that the government has an interest in providing weather details to its citizens as a whole for planning and safety. Private citizens and companies are not entitled to markets, especially when it comes to public knowledge and safety!

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