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OK, I'll bite. So in this case, a dev has (we think) broken the ToS of his agreement with Apple by publishing information before launch. What do you think the

OK, I'll bite. So in this case, a dev has (we think) broken the ToS of his agreement with Apple by publishing information before launch. What do you think the government should do about this?

bsder 7y ago
I think ToS that say "We can screw you and you can't do anything about it." need to get ripped up once you reach monopoly status. At the very least, Apple and Google should have to appoint a "public ombudsman" overseen by the government that handles these kinds of complaints/problems that people can actually contact. And if they don't seem to be handling them very well, they need to get fined increasingly severely until they do.
- marcus_holmes 7y ago
  So the government should create a taxpayer-paid ombudsman, who will accept complaints from developers about tech companies with, say, >20% market share. And that ombudsman will arbitrate between the tech companies and the developers, with the power to impose fines on the tech companies if they think the developer was treated unfairly. OK. That works in other industries, so could work here. But in this case, where the developer (we think) has clearly broken the ToS of the agreement, which was basically "we will provide you with privileged access to information so that you can develop for upcoming products, but please don't share that with the public". What do you think the ombudsman should do?
  - bsder 7y ago
    > But in this case, where the developer (we think) has clearly broken the ToS of the agreement, which was basically "we will provide you with privileged access to information so that you can develop for upcoming products, but please don't share that with the public". What do you think the ombudsman should do? What you normally do with such a person? People who break NDAs get punished according to the NDA. You take them to court and you hit them with the correct penalty. Or you do what most normal companies do and simply omit them from anything requiring an NDA in the future. You don't get to summarily punish them with no notice and no explanation. You don't get to yank their iTunes, iCloud or development account unless that is a specific term of the NDA. You don't get to exert punishments simply because you can. When you act like that, you are creating a "blacklist" and the law generally takes a dim view of that. These companies have been operating above the law for far too long because 1) what they provide is "free" so damages are difficult to prove and 2) they are so big that most individuals really can't oppose them. The only way anyone punishes these companies is if they happen to have a big enough social following to provoke enough negative PR to actually cost the company money.

OK, I'll bite. So in this case, a dev has (we think) broken the ToS of his agreement with Apple by publishing information before launch. What do you think the government should do about this?

bsder 7y ago

I think ToS that say "We can screw you and you can't do anything about it." need to get ripped up once you reach monopoly status. At the very least, Apple and Google should have to appoint a "public ombudsman" overseen by the government that handles these kinds of complaints/problems that people can actually contact. And if they don't seem to be handling them very well, they need to get fined increasingly severely until they do.

marcus_holmes 7y ago
So the government should create a taxpayer-paid ombudsman, who will accept complaints from developers about tech companies with, say, >20% market share. And that ombudsman will arbitrate between the tech companies and the developers, with the power to impose fines on the tech companies if they think the developer was treated unfairly. OK. That works in other industries, so could work here. But in this case, where the developer (we think) has clearly broken the ToS of the agreement, which was basically "we will provide you with privileged access to information so that you can develop for upcoming products, but please don't share that with the public". What do you think the ombudsman should do?
- bsder 7y ago
  > But in this case, where the developer (we think) has clearly broken the ToS of the agreement, which was basically "we will provide you with privileged access to information so that you can develop for upcoming products, but please don't share that with the public". What do you think the ombudsman should do? What you normally do with such a person? People who break NDAs get punished according to the NDA. You take them to court and you hit them with the correct penalty. Or you do what most normal companies do and simply omit them from anything requiring an NDA in the future. You don't get to summarily punish them with no notice and no explanation. You don't get to yank their iTunes, iCloud or development account unless that is a specific term of the NDA. You don't get to exert punishments simply because you can. When you act like that, you are creating a "blacklist" and the law generally takes a dim view of that. These companies have been operating above the law for far too long because 1) what they provide is "free" so damages are difficult to prove and 2) they are so big that most individuals really can't oppose them. The only way anyone punishes these companies is if they happen to have a big enough social following to provoke enough negative PR to actually cost the company money.