 All over France, taxi drivers are causing violence and blocking roads in protest of Uber. One of the writers from The Verge, Amar Toor, actually lives in Paris, and he's going to tell us what's going on. Yeah, well actually it's a strike organized by a bunch of French taxi unions, so taxi drivers, who are upset primarily over the fact that, over UberPOP, which is Uber's low-cost service, and this has been something that's been brewing for a long time. So there was a law passed in December of last year that basically said that all chauffeurs, including taxi drivers and also kind of private car services, have to adhere to these rules and regulations, which on the face of it makes it seem like Uber should have to apply to that as well. And UberPOP technically still is illegal, but is allowed to exist because Uber kind of appealed the ruling, so they maintain they're a technology company and not a car service or transportation company, so therefore they shouldn't have to adhere to these rules. It's been kind of this gray legal space for a long time and everything kind of boiled over today. And the taxi drivers are primarily upset because UberPOP employs kind of amateur drivers, or non-professional, non-licensed drivers. They don't have to pay a lot of the licensing fees that typical taxi drivers have to pay, which can be up to like, you know, nearly $300,000. For the moment there's no end in sight. It seems like the government is trying to appease things, or appease the taxis by this call to ban UberPOP, which seems to me like they're hoping that that'll bring things to an end. But when they announce this strike, normally they announce strikes, you know, for trains or for airport or things like that, they'll give like a definite time frame, but they didn't do that in this case. They said like it's unlimited, which is, you know, kind of not a very good sign for anybody looking to travel.
 All over France, taxi drivers are causing violence and blocking roads in protest of Uber.
 One of the writers from The Verge, Amar Toor, actually lives in Paris, and he's going to tell us what's going on.
 Yeah, well actually it's a strike organized by a bunch of French taxi unions, so taxi drivers,
 who are upset primarily over the fact that, over UberPOP, which is Uber's low-cost service,
 and this has been something that's been brewing for a long time.
 So there was a law passed in December of last year that basically said that all chauffeurs,
 including taxi drivers and also kind of private car services, have to adhere to these rules and regulations,
 which on the face of it makes it seem like Uber should have to apply to that as well.
 And UberPOP technically still is illegal, but is allowed to exist because Uber kind of appealed the ruling,
 so they maintain they're a technology company and not a car service or transportation company,
 so therefore they shouldn't have to adhere to these rules.
 It's been kind of this gray legal space for a long time and everything kind of boiled over today.
 And the taxi drivers are primarily upset because UberPOP employs kind of amateur drivers,
 or non-professional, non-licensed drivers. They don't have to pay a lot of the licensing fees
 that typical taxi drivers have to pay, which can be up to like, you know, nearly $300,000.
 For the moment there's no end in sight. It seems like the government is trying to appease things,
 or appease the taxis by this call to ban UberPOP, which seems to me like they're hoping that that'll bring things to an end.
 But when they announce this strike, normally they announce strikes, you know, for trains or for airport or things like that,
 they'll give like a definite time frame, but they didn't do that in this case.
 They said like it's unlimited, which is, you know, kind of not a very good sign for anybody looking to travel.