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Ask HN: Why Aren't FAANG Companies Lobbying More?
Especially for things like copyright reform, where large tech companies have more to gain than others in various fields do. We've all heard stuff about Getty Images vs Google over Google Images and the MPAA's actions being the original reason for YouTube's ridiculous content ID setup and broken copyright system.
So why don't Google and co try and lobby for copyright terms to be shortened, fair use expanded, etc? They've got more money than these older companies and organisations do, and seem like they could easily say, outbid/spend Disney in pushing for changes here.
So why don't they do that? Maybe even buy out a bunch of these organisations too.
- dencodev 6y agoI don't think Google could "easily" outspend Disney. Google has 5 times the market cap but Disney's entire business model relies on intellectual property laws. Disney will go bankrupt defending those laws before they let them change. Google is not willing to spend billions of dollars on that sort of lobbying because it really doesn't impact their bottom line that much. IP doesn't factor in much to selling and serving ads.
- giantg2 6y agoThis. And also, there are a myriad of these "old" companies that would band together to fight this. The MPAA is an example of companies within an industry banding together.
- giantg2 6y agoI don't see buying content producers to really be consistent with Google's business model. I could be wrong.