"We used to live in a society where webmasters' rights to the fruits of their labor weren't trampled on by inane regulation"
We still do. Nothing has changed on that front.
"Now if you run a website in the EU, any user who signs up to it has control over the contents of your servers and you have to ask in extremely specific detail to do anything with some of that content, and that "consent" can be revoked at any time."
As it should have been from the beginning. Having the standard being that the company hoovers up all your data all the time without telling you what they're doing with it or why they need it was a terrible, terrible thing.
"The EU has shot themselves in the foot and more and more companies are going to refuse to do business with them because of it."
We still do. Nothing has changed on that front.
"Now if you run a website in the EU, any user who signs up to it has control over the contents of your servers and you have to ask in extremely specific detail to do anything with some of that content, and that "consent" can be revoked at any time."
As it should have been from the beginning. Having the standard being that the company hoovers up all your data all the time without telling you what they're doing with it or why they need it was a terrible, terrible thing.
"The EU has shot themselves in the foot and more and more companies are going to refuse to do business with them because of it."
I highly doubt it.