Slashdot Mirror
FTC's Internal Memo On Google Teaches Companies a Terrible Lesson
schwit1 writes FTC staffers spent enormous time pouring through Google's business practices and documents as well as interviewing executives and rivals. They came to the conclusion that Google was acting in anti-competitive ways, such as restricting advertisers from working with rival search engines. But commissioners balked at the prospect of a lengthy and protracted legal fight. For a big company, that process may have been enlightening. Agency staffers might find evidence of anti-competitive behavior. But that doesn't mean the firm will face the music in the end. Previous attempts to go after big companies — such as the Justice Department's long-running antitrust case against Microsoft in the 1990s — loomed large in regulators' minds at the time of the Google probe, according to a former official who worked at the agency then. "Even if we were in the right and could win," said the former official, "it could take a lot of resources away from other enforcement."
This is a universal truism that fits to all law enforcement actions. If a crime is too common to police universally, the law will be applied selectively. If you could convince every defendant of a specific crime to fight the charge in court, that would influence the prosecution of that crime. While every prosecutor would pursue crimes that have an obvious harm to society, prosecution of 'victim-less' crimes would drop off in the face of consistent & vigorous defense. The 'law & order' works because most defendants don't aggressively defend themselves in court.
The solution would be a step closer to Fascism, by hiring more police to be able to handle the bigger or more numerous cases. This closer to something like a step towards an Oligarchy or the natural result of an unrestricted free market.
When companies make more money than countries, they become pan-national entities that wield just as much power with less responsibility (don't have to mandate legal system, defense, social security, etc.). In an interesting result, this gives more reason to support a progressive taxes and an increase in minimum wage, to remove power from the top and give it to the workers (low / middle class) just on principle instead of some economic ideology.
People here love to hate Google, but they never bother to list any facts. Meanwhile, just five years ago, (see Internet Archive) everyone here was wishing Google would do anything and everything. They wanted more, more, more.
I've seen zero changes in their policies. But now, they've somehow become the devil--even while trying to protect Net Neutrality and gay rights.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is still shipping broken software and walling in UEFI, Apple is the North Korea of software platforms, and Canonical keeps trying to change the face of Linux by tossing out their existing userbase (Nintendo Wii anyone?).
But let's focus on Google. After all, I'm forced to use their products. Oh wait, no standard anywhere requires me to use their services at all. Isn't it terrible how we're required to use Google Drive over Dropbox to get a job? Nope. Isn't it terrible how we're required to use Google over Bing when we ship a PC? Nope. Isn't it terrible how we're required to use Google Docs over OpenOffice when we make a contract? Nope. I believe the answer you're looking for was Microsoft, Microsoft, Microsoft.