3 ms·

>Yea, but I'm a big fan of regulated food, clean water and pollution standards. Completely irrelevant. There are no US laws against private companies building

>Yea, but I'm a big fan of regulated food, clean water and pollution standards. Completely irrelevant. There are no US laws against private companies building censorship tools in the US, let alone in China.

justinclift 8y ago
Not yet. Maybe there should be. ;) With Google, it seems pretty fair to consider them a Monopoly in several areas. They also appear to be well down the path to abusing their Monopoly(ies?). Isn't that generally where regulators should become involved?
- jaaron 8y ago
  The point I think a few are trying to make is that the censorship in China issue is completely unrelated and irrelevant with respect to the monopoly issue. You want to break them up with anti-trust because they're a monopoly? Sure. Go ahead and investigate and figure that out. You want to ... punish/regulate/? them because they do business in China? You may not like it, but I don't see under what regulation or law you can do that? The best analogy is US companies that contract with sweatshops. There's actually not a lot I'm aware of that can be done in the US court system, outside of utilizing trade treaties that require adherence to certain labor regulations.
  - DenisM 8y ago
    >under what regulation or law you can do that? this question is answered in the parent post to: >>>There are no US laws against private companies building censorship tools in the US, let alone in China >>Not yet. Maybe there should be [a new law -- DenisM]. ;) If the problem is deemed severe a new law could be made that restricts participation in "oppressive activities", however they are defined. This would be similar to "trading with the enemy" act [1], or to COCOM [2], or to terrorism-related financial restrictions, or to Iran / N Korea / Russia sanctions. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_with_the_Enemy_Act_of_1917 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_with_the_Enemy_Act_of_... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinating_Committee_for_Multilateral_Export_Controls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinating_Committee_for_Mul...
- fnord123 8y ago
  Many people in the US government actively want censorship tools to be created to police copyright infringements. From a software perspective, at least, it's basically the same thing: slurp up all the media and remove ones that aren't allowed under the ruleset.
ddingus 8y ago
It appears changing that may be under discussion. If so, great! Let us all discuss.

justinclift 8y ago

Not yet. Maybe there should be. ;) With Google, it seems pretty fair to consider them a Monopoly in several areas. They also appear to be well down the path to abusing their Monopoly(ies?). Isn't that generally where regulators should become involved?

jaaron 8y ago
The point I think a few are trying to make is that the censorship in China issue is completely unrelated and irrelevant with respect to the monopoly issue. You want to break them up with anti-trust because they're a monopoly? Sure. Go ahead and investigate and figure that out. You want to ... punish/regulate/? them because they do business in China? You may not like it, but I don't see under what regulation or law you can do that? The best analogy is US companies that contract with sweatshops. There's actually not a lot I'm aware of that can be done in the US court system, outside of utilizing trade treaties that require adherence to certain labor regulations.
- DenisM 8y ago
  >under what regulation or law you can do that? this question is answered in the parent post to: >>>There are no US laws against private companies building censorship tools in the US, let alone in China >>Not yet. Maybe there should be [a new law -- DenisM]. ;) If the problem is deemed severe a new law could be made that restricts participation in "oppressive activities", however they are defined. This would be similar to "trading with the enemy" act [1], or to COCOM [2], or to terrorism-related financial restrictions, or to Iran / N Korea / Russia sanctions. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_with_the_Enemy_Act_of_1917 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trading_with_the_Enemy_Act_of_... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinating_Committee_for_Multilateral_Export_Controls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinating_Committee_for_Mul...
fnord123 8y ago
Many people in the US government actively want censorship tools to be created to police copyright infringements. From a software perspective, at least, it's basically the same thing: slurp up all the media and remove ones that aren't allowed under the ruleset.

ddingus 8y ago

It appears changing that may be under discussion. If so, great! Let us all discuss.