After protests last week turned violent, French authorities have detained two executives of the ride-sharing company Uber, although officials stated that they were brought into custody on charges unrelated to the protests. Uber is facing ferocious criticism in France, with taxi-drivers complaining that drivers for UberPOP don't have professional licenses and don't pay the same taxes as traditional car services. The conflict highlights tensions in France, a country with a long tradition of hard-fought labor rights, as it grapples with new technologies and economic models. 

Last week's rioting, which resulted in 70 damaged cars, gained international attention in part due to tweets from Courtney Love, who found herself at the center of the melée, and sparked a lively discussion on Archinect.

The conversation oriented around issues of technological disruption, bureaucratic regulation and workers' rights, with some, like jla-x, drawing comparisons to architecture. 

Donna Sink asked: "the competitiveness of the new product is only possible due to the workers not being paid a living wage and the consumers not having any protections base on liability. Is that the world you want to live in?"

b3tadine[sutures] stated: "The problem is a difficult, but solvable one, cabbies typically pay a ridiculously high fee for their medallion/license - $250k and up - and they have to take special tests. So this is why the riots, people who are just scraping by, fighting off a sharing economy that typically favors a certain class of people."

Alternative responded: "Which is worse for the drivers? Making less money through Uber than would a licensed cabbie, or being shut out of the car service market altogether because of regulation (i.e. licensure/medallion requirements, or what have you)?"

BenC shared a Canadian perspective and added: "The main completely valid issue i se with this is the artificially low overheads that Uber can get away with by not paying any licensing fees. This needs to be addressed in some way to make an even playing field, and Uber needs a seat at the table when negotiating this with municipalities."

Anonitect contended: "We need think like citizens, not consumers. Consumers want cheap goods, and don't care where the costs associated with those low prices land - the environment, the children working in sweatshops in poor countries, or in this case, the ability of municipalities to raise the taxes they need to provide basic services (and the ability to regulate businesses) - who cares?

Citizens take responsibility for their actions, and make economic decisions based on what's best for their country and the world, knowing that if they're getting off cheap, someone is probably paying the price."