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When companies get to monopoly status (which the SV companies are), many of the kinds of things they could do as non-monopolies are no longer legal. They also
by tomohawk 8y ago
When companies get to monopoly status (which the SV companies are), many of the kinds of things they could do as non-monopolies are no longer legal. They also face greater political scrutiny and legal action.
This is as it should be.
The railroad companies are heavily regulated, as are the phone companies, as are the energy companies, etc. They tried applying 1930s phone laws to the internet, and that didn't work out. At some point, they'll have to nut up and make some laws that prevent monopolies from doing bad things, or they'll have to allow the FTC to start breaking 'em up.
- philwelch 8y agoYeah, it’s a hard problem. And I think GP is right in the sense that being good stewards of their power will forestall any legislative action targeted against them. The Bell monopoly persisted for years by being on good terms with the government. Which is ironically an incentive for them to take defense and intelligence contracts.