4 ms·

Surprised there's not much coverage on this on HN. I suspect this is the first of many legal cases against the tech empires, and if this goes south you may be

Surprised there's not much coverage on this on HN. I suspect this is the first of many legal cases against the tech empires, and if this goes south you may be able to conclude the rest will as well. How much power and influence can Google buy (absolute best attorneys, call in favors...) vs the power of the US government? If the US government can't do anything, what does that mean?

AlbertCory 3y ago
It's not very dramatic, so far. Compare to David Boies making Gates look like an arrogant little dweeb, as he did in 1998.
- ndesaulniers 3y ago
  Got a link?
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    Just search YouTube. They're all there.
    - Mistletoe 3y ago
      Gates looking like an arrogant little dweeb will have a lot of results.
      - AlbertCory 3y ago
        so you need instructions on how to search?
        Mistletoe 3y ago
        I’m sorry, it was just a joke.
      - patmorgan23 3y ago
        "Bill gates Microsoft anti trust deposition"
    - tiffanyh 3y ago
      Plot twist, you have to use a Google product to find & watch the video.
gochi 3y ago
It's a monumental case, but hard to get people to care without intense clickbait and there hasn't been much that can be used as clickbait.
nazgulsenpai 3y ago
Some of us lived to see Microsoft be found to be in violation of antitrust statutes and forced to break up only for them to become the behemoth they are today. Its hard to get excited about the Google since its already been proven with enough power and influence, not too much of this matters a whole lot. I'm optimistic but quite jaded.
- School-Cotton 3y ago
  Microsoft was never forced to break up, they just had to change some of their business practices.
  - Retric 3y ago
    That’s the joke.
  - AlbertCory 3y ago
    to be pedantic: the trial judge did order a breakup. On appeal, that penalty was struck down.
    - CSMastermind 3y ago
      Which is honestly a shame. Even as a budding software engineer I didn't really understand the Microsoft anti-trust case at the time. It's only now that I appreciate the problem and do think it would have been better for everyone, Microsoft included, had they been broken up.
- AnimalMuppet 3y ago
  Microsoft was forced to limit their behavior. I don't recall them being forced to break up. Did I miss something?
  - dmoy 3y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_C.... > On June 7, 2000, the District Court ordered a breakup of Microsoft as its remedy. Then > Ultimately, the Circuit Court overturned Jackson's holding that Microsoft should be broken up as an illegal monopoly. However, the Circuit Court did not overturn Jackson's findings of fact, and held that traditional antitrust analysis was not equipped to consider software-related practices like browser tie-ins.
rvz 3y ago
Looks to me that Googlers reading the news of this are quite concerned about their employer being held to account for not only their monopolistic actions, but as a result of that and retaining 90% of the market share, also having virtually close to no serious competition to challenge their monopoly. It appears that this is the beginning of the end of the big tech party.
- matwood 3y ago
  > It appears that this is the beginning of the end of the big tech party. I think about it differently. First, the government going after a company for being a monopoly is the goal for every company in a capitalist system. It means they won the game by cornering markets and crushing every possible competitor. Second, breakups will grow the big tech pie and increase shareholder and employee value. How many small, but growing endeavors has a company like Google killed? How many internal projects never see the light of day because they aren't Google scale day 1? Breaking up some of the current big tech behemoths will unlock and trigger a new big tech party, it will just be spread across more different companies.
ThrowawayR2 3y ago
There are a lot fewer FOSS diehards and old school hackers than there were in 2001. And those that are still around are not going to be that anxious to admit that their darling Google, their ally and great hope for destroying "M$", turned out to be an even more heinous monopolist than them.
- asadotzler 3y ago
  Google wasn't anyone's great hope in 2001.
majormajor 3y ago
> If the US government can't do anything, what does that mean? It means the US people would need to - if they wanted to - pass new laws specifically to target tech company's anti-competitive behaviors because they aren't exactly the same thing as what was being done by the companies the laws originally targeted. I'm not convinced there is broad >60% popular support for expanded antitrust laws, so you'd really have to start with that in terms of what it means.

AlbertCory 3y ago

It's not very dramatic, so far. Compare to David Boies making Gates look like an arrogant little dweeb, as he did in 1998.

ndesaulniers 3y ago
Got a link?
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  Just search YouTube. They're all there.
  - Mistletoe 3y ago
    Gates looking like an arrogant little dweeb will have a lot of results.
    - AlbertCory 3y ago
      so you need instructions on how to search?
      - Mistletoe 3y ago
        I’m sorry, it was just a joke.
    - patmorgan23 3y ago
      "Bill gates Microsoft anti trust deposition"
  - tiffanyh 3y ago
    Plot twist, you have to use a Google product to find & watch the video.

gochi 3y ago

It's a monumental case, but hard to get people to care without intense clickbait and there hasn't been much that can be used as clickbait.

nazgulsenpai 3y ago

Some of us lived to see Microsoft be found to be in violation of antitrust statutes and forced to break up only for them to become the behemoth they are today. Its hard to get excited about the Google since its already been proven with enough power and influence, not too much of this matters a whole lot. I'm optimistic but quite jaded.

School-Cotton 3y ago
Microsoft was never forced to break up, they just had to change some of their business practices.
- Retric 3y ago
  That’s the joke.
- AlbertCory 3y ago
  to be pedantic: the trial judge did order a breakup. On appeal, that penalty was struck down.
  - CSMastermind 3y ago
    Which is honestly a shame. Even as a budding software engineer I didn't really understand the Microsoft anti-trust case at the time. It's only now that I appreciate the problem and do think it would have been better for everyone, Microsoft included, had they been broken up.
AnimalMuppet 3y ago
Microsoft was forced to limit their behavior. I don't recall them being forced to break up. Did I miss something?
- dmoy 3y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_Corp https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft_C.... > On June 7, 2000, the District Court ordered a breakup of Microsoft as its remedy. Then > Ultimately, the Circuit Court overturned Jackson's holding that Microsoft should be broken up as an illegal monopoly. However, the Circuit Court did not overturn Jackson's findings of fact, and held that traditional antitrust analysis was not equipped to consider software-related practices like browser tie-ins.

rvz 3y ago

Looks to me that Googlers reading the news of this are quite concerned about their employer being held to account for not only their monopolistic actions, but as a result of that and retaining 90% of the market share, also having virtually close to no serious competition to challenge their monopoly. It appears that this is the beginning of the end of the big tech party.

matwood 3y ago
> It appears that this is the beginning of the end of the big tech party. I think about it differently. First, the government going after a company for being a monopoly is the goal for every company in a capitalist system. It means they won the game by cornering markets and crushing every possible competitor. Second, breakups will grow the big tech pie and increase shareholder and employee value. How many small, but growing endeavors has a company like Google killed? How many internal projects never see the light of day because they aren't Google scale day 1? Breaking up some of the current big tech behemoths will unlock and trigger a new big tech party, it will just be spread across more different companies.

ThrowawayR2 3y ago

There are a lot fewer FOSS diehards and old school hackers than there were in 2001. And those that are still around are not going to be that anxious to admit that their darling Google, their ally and great hope for destroying "M$", turned out to be an even more heinous monopolist than them.

asadotzler 3y ago
Google wasn't anyone's great hope in 2001.

majormajor 3y ago

> If the US government can't do anything, what does that mean? It means the US people would need to - if they wanted to - pass new laws specifically to target tech company's anti-competitive behaviors because they aren't exactly the same thing as what was being done by the companies the laws originally targeted. I'm not convinced there is broad >60% popular support for expanded antitrust laws, so you'd really have to start with that in terms of what it means.