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Re:Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data ... by lostmsu on Saturday October 24, 2026 @01:03PM (#50223118)
> It's about fairness.

It is a nothingburger from the fairness point as well. People knowingly and unknowingly violate a lot of permitting processes all the time and in many cases never suffer any consequences even if discovered, unless they have zealous neighbors.

Re:Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data ... by fsloth on Saturday October 24, 2026 @01:21PM (#50223244)
To give you an idea how the situation really is like, for example Finland has municipal compost inspectors that track individual property composting.

While things can fall through cracks your disregard for regulation does not really apply as a fair example to the milieu.

Re:Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data ... by lostmsu on Saturday October 24, 2026 @03:03PM (#50224071)
The fact that some rules are strictly enforced does not mean all are.
Re:Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data ... by fsloth on Sunday October 25, 2026 @09:25AM (#50231325)
The fact they are rules mean they are expected to be respected and enforced.

You are here repeating the same argument that goes "it's only a crime if you get caught".

This is a specific philosophy of law.

Now while rule of law has different meanings depending on the country where you live, in a nordic democracy like Finland legislation exists for the benefit of public good, and acting by these laws is one of the foundational expectations in the society.

The fact they are recognized to serve the public good, means everyone is expected to follow them, and not following them is not only a process error, but in fact, deeply immoral.

I do realize different countries operate differently and somewhere else laws are not necessarily about trying to achieve philosophical good outcomes for the population.

But in Finland "well it's the law but who follows those things" argument is not common sense rule of thumb but considered wanton disregard of public good - which everyone considers to be a shared responsibility to maintain.

Re:Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data ... by lostmsu on Sunday October 25, 2026 @10:46AM (#50232112)
You are misrepresenting what I said. I am talking about fairness of application of law. I am sure Finns are all law abiding citizens, but the point is that regulations are overcomplicated, and a lot of people knowingly or unknowingly violate some a lot of time. In construction in particular.

My claim is that Google is getting unfair (in their favor) treatment is incorrect, because average Elias will also get no or next to no negative consequences making a very similar mistake on average Elias's scale.

Re:Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data ... by fsloth on Sunday October 25, 2026 @11:39AM (#50232740)
We may be at some sort of communications gap.

To be clear my intent is not to misrepresent your statement, just to explain how I hear it.

"I am talking about fairness of application of law"

But there is no fairness in application of law?

The law is the law. Just like 1 + 1 is 2, the role of the legal process is to compute this. And it should apply to same to any party that is active in a legal process.

Re:Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data ... by lostmsu on Sunday October 25, 2026 @12:36PM (#50233405)
The point it does "apply the same". And sometimes it doesn't apply, but it doesn't apply "the same" between Google and avg Elias - at least as far as I can see.
Re:Google illegally cut down 250K trees in Finland for data ... by CRConrad on Monday October 26, 2026 @09:36AM (#50243450)
> ...average Elias will also get no or next to no negative consequences making a very similar mistake on average Elias's scale.

1) The same consequences are probably a lot less "next to no" on Elias's scale.

2) As Uncle Joe is said to have said, "enough quantity becomes a quality of its own". Google-scale chopping down trees is not just a little bigger, it's so much bigger that it becomes a fundamentally different thing than Elias-scale wrong composting.

So yes, anything short of shutting down any plans for new Google data centers in Finland[1] is Google getting favourable treatment; that claim is not incorrect.

___

[1]: And preferably shutting down any existing ones, too. Just so they, and others like them, maybe will learn.