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Google Wants To Administer the First White Spaces

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the what-can-you-squish-in-there dept.

aabelro writes "Google proposes to the FCC to become the administrator of a White Spaces Database containing geo-location information about devices using the free channels in the radio spectrum."

3 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Hmmmm... by AnotherUsername · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would much rather the FCC be the administrator of it. I know Google is the big player right now, but it is still just a corporation(especially one that profits from data mining/advertising). The government is not for profit. Google is completely for profit. The government is more likely to make access to the database free. As always, as those who know my views can guess, I trust the government more than I do corporations, and this includes corporations like Google.

    --
    I don't like Linux. This doesn't make me a troll.
    1. Re:Hmmmm... by MrNaz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why is government control necessarily "evil"? It's function* is to control social institutions and infrastructure that is otherwise unprofitable to run or should not be run in a for-profit manner. Furthermore, corporations come and go, as do their agendas. Would you want AT&T to be in charge of all IP addresses that were unused back in the 70s when it was the dominant player in telecommunications? In 20 years Google will (hopefully) be just another once-were-innovators.

      If this same discussion were happening 10 years ago, the big name putting up their hand to administer it, and would probably have little competition, would be Microsoft. Who'd want that? Google will one day be what Microsoft is today; hated, feared and opposed by pretty much everyone, and all the Google fanboys today will claim then that they never really liked Google the way ex-MS lovers now claim they never liked MS.

      Corporations should *never* be given permanent power over social infrastructure. I never understood the willingness of the US population to give fundamentally transient organizations power over social infrastructure. Imagine if SCO actually *did* have control over anything important in the Unix world?

      Privatization is *not* the panacea that Americans hold it to be.

      (Oh, and I know you're not saying it is, I'm agreeing with and taking further your point.)

      * Current implementation of "government" is not what I'm talking about, I'm talking philosophically.

      --
      I hate printers.
  2. Google slogan mmm by Ractive · · Score: 5, Funny

    Google slogan : "Don't be evil"

    Google slogan in 5 years : "Don't be soooo evil"

    Google slogan in 10 years : "Just don't be as evil as Satan himself"

    Google slogan in 20 years : "All your arses are belong to us"