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> Well I don't think that IBM, Sun, Nvidia, Oracle, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sandisk, Cisco, Ebay, Craigslist, Wikipedia, Facebook, Snapchat, Wechat, Instagram

by c3534l 8y ago

> Well I don't think that IBM, Sun, Nvidia, Oracle, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sandisk, Cisco, Ebay, Craigslist, Wikipedia, Facebook, Snapchat, Wechat, Instagram, Pinterest, fall into that category. I don't think you're right about that. Congress waited to pass laws about software patentability. They waited to hold Craigslist accountable for potentially illegal ads on their site. They took a conservative approach in applying things like libel laws to the likes of spam filters, to Wikipedia and social networking. Instagram and Pinterest definitely skirt the law when it comes to copyright violations and they could have easily ruled early on that if you publish something on your website, you're responsible for the legality of that content. YouTube (not that you mentioned it) grew out of illegally hosting copyrighted material before they learned to play nice with the big corporations by implementing contentID and the like. The government could well have regulated these websites like they did with television: banning the use of profane language or sexual content. You severely underestimate the wild west that a lot of these companies were operating under. Hardware, fine, but I don't know of what regulations a person might want to place on them to begin with.

sonnyblarney 8y ago
Except that none of those situations you suggest indicate 'laws catching up to the internet' - except in the case of Craiglist prostitution ads which is within the special case group I noted. None of those companies were broadly breaking any rules to the point of fundamental ambiguity wherein 'we all waited to see what was going to happen'. I see your point about Pinterest but it wasn't really an existential issue, really. And none of said companies faced existential issues or angst awaiting legal clarity on anything really.
- lmm 8y ago
  > None of those companies were broadly breaking any rules to the point of fundamental ambiguity wherein 'we all waited to see what was going to happen'. I see your point about Pinterest but it wasn't really an existential issue, really. Huh? It's absolutely an existential issue. Pinterest's entire business is built on unauthorised use of content from other websites.
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    Early on there were some question marks ... but really it's not really a problem, there will be no legislation regarding it, and nothing really will come of it in the end.
  - erikpukinskis 8y ago
    > Pinterest's entire business is built on unauthorised use of content from other websites. That’s 100% true of Google too, and actually Facebook as well to a large extent. And certainly Reddit.

by c3534l 8y ago

sonnyblarney 8y ago

Except that none of those situations you suggest indicate 'laws catching up to the internet' - except in the case of Craiglist prostitution ads which is within the special case group I noted. None of those companies were broadly breaking any rules to the point of fundamental ambiguity wherein 'we all waited to see what was going to happen'. I see your point about Pinterest but it wasn't really an existential issue, really. And none of said companies faced existential issues or angst awaiting legal clarity on anything really.

lmm 8y ago
> None of those companies were broadly breaking any rules to the point of fundamental ambiguity wherein 'we all waited to see what was going to happen'. I see your point about Pinterest but it wasn't really an existential issue, really. Huh? It's absolutely an existential issue. Pinterest's entire business is built on unauthorised use of content from other websites.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  Early on there were some question marks ... but really it's not really a problem, there will be no legislation regarding it, and nothing really will come of it in the end.
- erikpukinskis 8y ago
  > Pinterest's entire business is built on unauthorised use of content from other websites. That’s 100% true of Google too, and actually Facebook as well to a large extent. And certainly Reddit.