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You can't apply US laws to foreign countries. Yes, painting on someone's window is vandalism in the US, but you cannot say it hold true in France. If the French judge says they haven't broken any French laws, I'll accept that they haven't broken any French laws.

Okay, then maybe next time I go to Paris I should spraypaint everyone's cars for being rude Parisians. That's my freedom of speech, no?
 
Remove the defacing of the Apple store windows and you have a peaceful protest using the right to free speech
 
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Not relevant, fact is you have freedom of speech in Europe, glad the judge denied Apple's request.

Free speech is fine except they’re wasting their energy and completely misguided. They should be petitioning the govt to fix the tax system.

Apple technically isn’t avoiding taxes any more than those same individuals who use every legal avenue to reduce their tax burdens.

Besides, not paying enough taxes is not the problem. It’s the inefficiencies and corruption of govt that piss away most of the people’s hard earned dollars.

Instead of expecting handouts from the government, these people would be far better off investing in an infinitely more efficient entity like Apple and making money from dividends and appreciation.
 
Not a peep after the Super Bowl. Four arrests for damage that was extensive. That's absolutely a different standard than people protesting/rising up for their rights to not be murdered by the arbiters of the law.
Exactly!!!! I can point to almost everywhere in the U.S. After the first two Bulls championships in Chicago there were people smashing windows and going nuts downtown......no arrests (save the few people that entered the stores with smashed windows and started looting) But people ignoring traffic signals, driving down street wailing on horns, people flooding street stopping traffic, street signs ripped down by United Center. All just people celebrating, and no one was arrested.
 
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Remove the defacing of the Apple store windows and you have a peaceful protest using the right to free speech

This group is protesting inside Apple Stores, disrupting business.
attac-occupying-paris-store.jpg

aboutahundre.jpg
 
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Free speech is fine except they’re wasting their energy and completely misguided. They should be petitioning the govt to fix the tax system.

Apple technically isn’t avoiding taxes any more than those same individuals who use every legal avenue to reduce their tax burdens.

Besides, not paying enough taxes is not the problem. It’s the inefficiencies and corruption of govt that piss away most of the people’s hard earned dollars.

Instead of expecting handouts from the government, these people would be far better off investing in an infinitely more efficient entity like Apple and making money from dividends and appreciation.


We will see if that's the case, I think Apple will loose this.
 
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Apple. Just pull of of France. Believe me, you would even notice.

LOL. Apple opened stores in France because its profits there were negligible? Why wouldn't anyone believe you?

Free speech? In EU? LOL?
Try being a german citizen and writing just a simple post on facebook, something like this:
"Mass immigration is bad for us".

Good luck, because in 10mins police will come to take you in because of 'hate speech'.

Must be those thousands of AfD members and supporters the police is arresting 24/7 that led you to that conclusion, right?
 
I’ll bet this puts a smile on Timmy’s face

Activist Cook doesn’t care for activism huh?

The beautiful irony!
 
It seems to me for some people if it was for their righteous cause, burning a giant cross in front of the place would be free speech.

Well to be fair, burning a cross (or a flag) is protected speech in the US under the first amendment. The first amendment isn't there to protect popular speech, that type of speech doesn't need protection. It's to protect the thoughts and ideas of the minority and even those that the rest of us find abhorrent.
 
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Exactly!!!! I can point to almost everywhere in the U.S. After the first two Bulls championships in Chicago there were people smashing windows and going nuts downtown......no arrests (save the few people that entered the stores with smashed windows and started looting) But people ignoring traffic signals, driving down street wailing on horns, people flooding street stopping traffic, street signs ripped down by United Center. All just people celebrating, and no one was arrested.
There are many reasons why these people were not arrested, I can think of a few:
- Authorities could have feared making things worse by arresting people.
- They probably weighted the enormous amount of work required to arrest and process those people and decided that it wasn't worth it.
- They understand that big crowds can start acting badly but most of those people individually would not cause trouble in normal circumstances.

Still, it doesn't mean that what these kind of crowds do is legal or right. I don't understand why some people think that breaking stuff is OK when they're celebrating...
 
Wow.

I don't expect that one is available, but if anyone is aware of an English language translation of that order (i.e. this order linked to in the OP) I'd appreciate a pointer. I'd like to read what it says for myself.

If the reporting on what it says is accurate, then the court seems to be taking the position that the "rights to freedom of expression and freedom of peaceful assembly protected by human rights laws in Europe" include the right to trespass on private property which its owners (or agents thereof) wish to prohibit you from. If that's an accurate interpretation of human rights laws in Europe, then... wow. That's head-shake-worthy and, frankly, scary.

So much for the notion of property ownership and property rights, which notion is one of the more important foundations on which the notion of society (and human organization as such) is itself founded on. And more generally, so much for the notion of individual liberty.
 
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You should go read the 2 posts before yours and #110. (#113 and #114)

Sidewalk chalk would be vandalism if you own the sidewalk too so yes it is. Anything someone owns if it is deface it is vandalism...simple as that.
 
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For some people, if it was for their righteous cause, burning a giant cross in front of the place would be free speech.
 
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Have you been living under a rock?

It's an honest thing that exists... again... in 2018. They've crept out of the woodwork in the past few years. And yeah, the things they say are as dumb as you're assuming by me confirming that it exists. The Falcon Heavy launch and Starman? They don't think it's real. Just google Flat Earth Society. Really. It would hurt my head too much to re-type things they say.


No thanks, I’d rather continue to live under my rock and pretend dumb idiots like that don’t exist in this era... stupidity isn’t the word for people like that! Utter madness... couldn’t make it up, perhaps they’ve been watching Thor too much? I’ll save my sanity and avoid reading about them.

If Apple were not paying its taxes, don't you think the government would be hunting them down pretty darn quickly with all the income they're generating? Just like in the US, the problem is the tax law, not the company who understands how to navigate the law effectively. How many of you complaining about Apple would be willing to set an example by paying more taxes than the law requires you to pay?

I'm not defending Apple, just irritated at all the misdirected anger. If the law doesn't require someone to pay taxes, it's the government that's responsible, not the beneficiary of the law. The protestors should be sitting in parliament not in front of an Apple store.

This story is about it the EU and the EU has gone after Ireland which is the country allowing Apple to pay 0.005% tax on its none US global earnings it piped through none existing offices there.. so the EU governments, or authorities have gone after them and are demanding billions in back payment, because every European is paying for Apples and Ireland’s ‘special deal’. The EU isn’t like the US, we pay our taxes generally and if you don’t pay them how do you spect your roads to be repaired? Schools run? Library’s run? Emergency services to operate? And so on and on and on.. big corporations that dodge tax are not very defensible and that includes any none US ones.
The deal they had did breach EU law, hence the EU taking Ireland to court over it, and they won too and are still wining despite Apples pathetic arguing over the matter. Why should Europeans in 27 countries pay state aid to Ireland, whilst Ireland lets Apple Pay practically nothing and almost launder its money through them? Hardly ‘doing everything for the customer’ as Cook claims..
These big corps dodging taxes in the EU is a sore subject, more so the US giants doing it..

From the way you write, it’s obvious you’re a kid or very young adult at most, still at school, so I guess you can be forgiven for your ignorance.

Wrong and not ignorant, you obviously don’t fully understand what Apple and Ireland did, I guess your American? I don’t see why I or any other European should pay for Apples tax dodging.
 
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A little off topic, but the good ol’ US of A needs to implement this yesterday

Would you support that in tort law as well? Someone slips in pee pee in a Costco and calls an 800 number on the back of a bus, if they lose their lawsuit can Costco demand legal fees? The fact that in most cases US courts don't is called the "American Rule" and you need to think through the full impact if that were to be altered.
 
Not relevant, fact is you have freedom of speech in Europe, glad the judge denied Apple's request.
You can see in the picture that they vandalized the store, so it's not about free speech.

Edit: I probably agree with their cause. It's just the way they protest is unacceptable.
 
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