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Oracle Is Funding a New Anti-Google Group (fortune.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Fortune: Oracle says it is funding a new non-profit called "Campaign for Accountability," which consists of a campaign called "The Google Transparency Project" that claims to expose criminal behavior carried out by Google. "Oracle is absolutely a contributor (one of many) to the Transparency Project. This is important information for the public to know. It is 100 percent public records and accurate," said Ken Glueck, Senior Vice President of Oracle. Fortune reports: "Oracle's hidden hand is not a huge surprise since the company has a history of sneaky PR tactics, and is still embroiled in a bitter intellectual property lawsuit with Google." One would think Microsoft may be another contributor, but the company said it is not. Daniel Stevens, the deputy director of the CfA, declined to name the group's other donors, or to explain why it does not disclose its funders. Why does this matter? "When wealthy companies or individuals pose as a grass-roots group like the so-called 'campaign for accountability' project, [it] can confuse news and public relations, and foster public cynicism," writes Jeff John Roberts via Fortune.

156 comments

  1. Pot, meet kettle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Hilarious.

    1. Re: Pot, meet kettle by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I think Oracle is probably just annoyed because after winning all of their big lawsuits against their own costumers, they lost what is arguably the mother of all of their lawsuits, and it wasn't one of their customers this time

    2. Re:Pot, meet kettle by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The evil of Google is like a candle flickering in the darkness.
      The evil of Oracle is like the midday sun.

    3. Re:Pot, meet kettle by sittingnut · · Score: 1

      this is not only hilarious, it is good.
      let these two ultra evil corps fight it out, while they pretend to be do no evil ordinary grass roots catering to interests of masses.

    4. Re:Pot, meet kettle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When has Oracle ever pretended to do no evil? I'm pretty sure their motto contains something about screwing over customers and suing all competitors.

    5. Re: Pot, meet kettle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know the "cool" thing to do these days is to bitch about Google, but what has Google done ever that was so evil? Are they powerful? Sure, but mostly because they have better products then their competition. This is not like Microsoft bullying people because they hold a dominant position with their OS. Google products are 100% voluntary, if you don't want to use them, then don't...

    6. Re: Pot, meet kettle by yuvcifjt · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're kidding right?
      Surely you can't be that ignorant of Google's power?!

      Here's a quick search to answer your question.

      Google literally have the power to change leadership of entire nations and sway voters, and even make or break an entire company!

      Google products are 100% voluntary, if you don't want to use them, then don't...

      Err, no they're not.
      You're Google's product and slave whether you like it or not.
      It's easy (for a technical person) to simply not use facebook and block their 2/3 domains, but it's almost impossible to do that with Google, considering GoogleAPIs, Captcha, Doubleclick, Analytics, GoogleAdServices, GoogleSyndication, GTM, Plus, etc, etc.

    7. Re:Pot, meet kettle by no1nose · · Score: 3, Informative

      Wanted to mod you up but everyone else already did. Oracle is evil. Anybody who says otherwise is selling something.

    8. Re: Pot, meet kettle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OK, so google is playing the lobby game like EVERY other major corporation out there. Frankly it would damm stupid of them if they didn't, at least with the way they play it, it is a net benefit to humanity. Compare Googles green energy push with a company like Exon that would rather see the world burn if it guarantees decent profits. Compare Googles 'free' information push when going up against repressive Governments or the media lobby. They are powerful (damm powerful) but they can be avoided, if using their services was to ever become mandatory (via lobbying efforts or something) then I would have to reevaluate. But right now they are (by far) the lesser evil (I would even argue good) versus the alternatives (other corporations and or government)...

      You're kidding right?
      Surely you can't be that ignorant of Google's power?!
      Here's a quick search to answer your question.
      Google literally have the power to change leadership of entire nations and sway voters, and even make or break an entire company!
      Google products are 100% voluntary, if you don't want to use them, then don't...
      Err, no they're not.
      You're Google's product and slave whether you like it or not.
      It's easy (for a technical person) to simply not use facebook and block their 2/3 domains, but it's almost impossible to do that with Google, considering GoogleAPIs, Captcha, Doubleclick, Analytics, GoogleAdServices, GoogleSyndication, GTM, Plus, etc, etc.

    9. Re: Pot, meet kettle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like Oracle is a little butthurt

    10. Re: Pot, meet kettle by flargleblarg · · Score: 1

      [...] after winning all of their big lawsuits against their own costumers, [...]

      Why would they sue their costumers? Someone sew a button in the wrong place or something?

    11. Re:Pot, meet kettle by JesseEnjaian · · Score: 1

      I like Oracle. They do innovative computer engineering and research.

    12. Re: Pot, meet kettle by Rexdude · · Score: 1

      It's easy (for a technical person) to simply not use facebook and block their 2/3 domains, but it's almost impossible to do that with Google, considering GoogleAPIs, Captcha, Doubleclick, Analytics, GoogleAdServices, GoogleSyndication, GTM, Plus, etc, etc.

      Considering you yourself just listed them out, what's so difficult about blocking them?
      On my desktop I use uBlock Origin with scripts blocked from googlesyndication, doubleclick, googletagmanager and google-analytics. On my phone, I use AdAway to map these domains to localhost.

      --
      "..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
    13. Re:Pot, meet kettle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hilarious.

      It appears that Darth Ellison is throwing a hissy-fit.

    14. Re: Pot, meet kettle by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      No, usually it's a matter of they give you a EULA, but instead of doing the sensible thing and making the software enforce the limits of your license, they just expect every single one of your employees to read it. If you do even something small like install it on a server with one too many cores, have one too many users, etc, they'll basically name their own price for an upgrade, which is usually an unreasonable price because you are in no position to negotiate, and if you don't agree to the price they'll sue you for copyright infringement.

    15. Re: Pot, meet kettle by flargleblarg · · Score: 1

      Woosh. :)
      Read again more closely... you wrote "costumers" when you meant "customers." :)

    16. Re: Pot, meet kettle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Amen brother. I've always disliked Oracle from a technical standpoint, but anything that will chip the google armor is alright by me.

  2. If Google is doing something illegal by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Then call them out on it already. Don't care if it's Oracle holding a childish grudge or not.

    1. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by guises · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If you call them out on it then they can refute it. This is SCO tactics, and Oracle is going to milk it for as long as they can.

      There couldn't have been a worse company to buy Sun, even Microsoft would have been preferable.

    2. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Thank you for your post Larry.

    3. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They don't have anything to cal them on, yet. It's just their opinion and experience that a company can't possibly get that big without being involved in bribes/kickbacks.

    4. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      The courts disagreed.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      What part of current legal doctrine regarding fair use says anything about "profit"?

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    6. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      You have to ask what is wrong with forming a PR group?

    7. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Oh bullshit. Oracle lost because Oracle never had a fucking case.

      Christ, Microsoft shills is one thing, but defending one of the most vile tech companies that ever existed, gimme a break. Every time Oracle gets shafted, an angel gets its wings.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    8. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Informative

      What part of current legal doctrine regarding fair use says anything about "profit"?

      How about Factor 1? Purpose and character of the work directly speaks to profits.

    9. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Seriously. At least Microsoft makes shit that some people actually like to use. I've yet to meet one person that actually enjoys using the poorly engineered crap that discharges from Oracle's anus, and everybody who does use it only does so because they have to. The few things Oracle makes that are somewhat usable are things that they bought from some other company and haven't yet had the chance to wipe their ass with it.

      And then worst of all, if you simply look at your oracle product the wrong way, they'll probably sue you for breaking the EULA.

    10. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But Fair Use is intentionally not objective. There is no automatic failing of Fair Use just because profits are involved - everything gets considered.

    11. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by capedgirardeau · · Score: 2

      The main complaint in the summary is not that someone is calling out Google, it is that Oracle is pretending to be a grassroots organization instead of Oracle just standing up and calling out google.

      And further, these fake grassroots organizations are harmful in the sense that they break down confidence and participation in real grass roots organizations. People get cynical and just assume any grassroots org is just a front for some giant evil corporation.

      --
      Wax on, wax off baby!
    12. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by JesseEnjaian · · Score: 1

      Their claim was that the Java API was copyrightable (judge ruled it isn't). But, I get the claim. Should you be able to copyright a protocol, like TCP/IP? Cryptographic algorithms are even patentable.

    13. Re:If Google is doing something illegal by ausekilis · · Score: 1

      There is a difference among "illegal", "immoral" , and "unethical". Oracle hasn't yet called Google out on something because they don't understand difference themselves.

  3. Transparency project + secret funding = FAIL by mdtiemann · · Score: 4, Funny

    Umm...what part of transparency do they not understand?

    1. Re:Transparency project + secret funding = FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So CTR then?

    2. Re:Transparency project + secret funding = FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Umm...what part of transparency do they not understand?

      They got their degree at Obama U.

    3. Re:Transparency project + secret funding = FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      At least Oracle releases their tax returns.

    4. Re:Transparency project + secret funding = FAIL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like Clinton then?

  4. I'll bet it's all Larry by surfdaddy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Larry Ellison is likely pissed that Google managed to make a ton of money over the language that Oracle bought with Sun, but never managed to do anything with it. So go after Google. I also wouln't be surprised if Microsoft is involved. Microsoft likes to be a tough competitor but they don't like other tough competitors.

    1. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by seoras · · Score: 0

      I suspect Larry too.
      I also suspect that there's an element of his close, late, friend Steve Jobs bitterness and declaration of war on Google in Larry's vendetta.

      Putting personal vendetta's aside Google is getting too powerful, it's ability to manipulate information on a global scale for political motives is worrying.
      Time for some transparency and/or regulation of Google and the online search industry.

    2. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's like being mad at all the successful psychics when you were the only one who paid for the official psychic's license from the back of a psychic magazine.

    3. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by bondsbw · · Score: 1

      I also wouln't be surprised if Microsoft is involved.

      Nope. RTFS.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    4. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      Perhaps Google is getting too powerful, but one thing is clear, Oracle has been too powerful for far too long, and if it takes the up-and-coming Godzilla to defeat one of the Old Dark Ones, then so be it.

      As to regulating search, just don't use Google search or any Google products. It's not like Bing doesn't exist, or other companies don't make search engines. Regulating search, at least in the limited purview of "right to be forgotten" nonsense in Europe, has demonstrated how bad regulation could become. Much better that you simply invoke the consumer's right, and don't use Google products.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    5. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by ItsJustAPseudonym · · Score: 1

      You read my mind.

    6. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I also wouln't be surprised if Microsoft is involved.

      Nope. RTFS.

      Just because the summary says it doesn't mean it's true. Microsoft is still running around doing a bunch of nasty shit. Ever noticed how Azure "fans" keep crawling out of the woodwork all over the place. Then when you ask they all turn out to be employed by people who are related to MS PR.

      Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft was involved in your comment (I don't rate it likely, but I wouldn't be surprised).

    7. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "Microsoft says it is not involved", as quoted in the article, is not precisely the same claim as "Microsoft is not involved". Microsoft demonstrated during the SCO/Linux lawsuits that they could, and did, hide their business sponsorship of morally bankrupt legal fraud by encouraging their business partners to engage in support of the fraudulent litigants. That effectively kept Microsoft funding of the lawsuit from showing up in any directly traceable payments.

    8. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by Njorthbiatr · · Score: 1

      Microsoft wants a higher adoption of their .NET platform.

      So if Oracle could win that lawsuit it would be the death to Java. Pretty good motive if you ask me.

    9. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Lots of people made a lot of money with Java. Not not Sun.
      I think idea was that Java would run best on Sparc/Solaris so Sun would sell a lot of of Sparc based hardware to big companies.
      Then X86/64 and Linux became a great home for Java.
      Java on the desktop is still around but Java for everything never took off. In a way the browser based apps we see now are exactly what Sun was suggesting back in the day and Microsoft feared.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    10. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by TooManyNames · · Score: 1

      I'd suspect that Microsoft probably is not involved, at least not in any remotely direct way.

      Microsoft is busy trying to broaden adoption of its Google competitor products, such as Edge and Bing, and it really does not need the PR headache that would ensue if it was tied to this pretty seedy anti-Google group. I mean, Microsoft still has its past anti-competitiveness practices hanging over its head, and the broader public still regards Microsoft with a tinge of cynical skepticism. Were Microsoft to involve itself with Oracle's dirt-digging operation, and that involvement was known, it'd probably do a lot to bolster anti-Microsoft sentiments, and further hinder Microsoft adoption where alternatives (especially Google's) exist. So, yeah, it'd probably be best if Microsoft steers well clear of this thing, and I'm sure they know that.

      That said, Microsoft definitely has an interest in Oracle finding success here, so they'll probably find some means of supporting this group, but very indirectly. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a lot of non-binding winking and nudging to get some of Microsoft's business partners on board.

      --
      "Is not a sentence" is not a sentence. Well damn.
    11. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by ZeroWaiteState · · Score: 1

      No, he's pissed because he wasn't able to force Google to cross-license their distributed query technology.

    12. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by tepples · · Score: 1

      True, Bing and Hotmail exist as Microsoft's alternatives to Google Search and Gmail. But what does Microsoft have that's remotely similar to, say, YouTube?

    13. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      There's VEVO.

    14. Re:I'll bet it's all Larry by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      I meant VIMEO.

  5. Is George Soros running Oracle now? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This sounds like one of his many surreptitious activities .

  6. It's been my experience ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... that you don't have to spend any money to get people to hate Google.

  7. Everything is still cool after work... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't worry, after they go to meetings at the White House, NSA, and/or CIA to help the government figure out how to better spy on people they still go out for drinks together.

  8. Honest question time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Honest question time. Has anybody ever used an Oracle product that wasn't garbage? The only way I could see it is if they were selling trash to a dump, Oracle could probably find a way to fuck that up. Oracle go kill yourself.

    Oh and fuck Google too. When the mob puts a hit out on you it's often not because you've been running your business too honestly.

    1. Re:Honest question time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm posting this as AC because I'm currently involved in the rollout of a big, bloated, expensive Oracle product at a major university.

      They're a fucking shitshow through and through. No one knows what's going on. This thing is going to be delayed by at least a year or it's going to be rammed down our asses and be a catastrophe for 18 months or more. Billions will be lost in man-hours alone, and even in the best case scenario where it somehow magically works nothing will be gained. Instead, more staff will be required to support and coddle this beast.

      I've intentionally avoided looking up how much we will be spending on this fucking thing or how it was approved because I know I won't like what I find out.

    2. Re:Honest question time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Billions will be lost? What the hell university is this? I wish we had for our entire university a tenth of your funding for this project.

    3. Re:Honest question time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh Oracle have quality products - because their database recovery actually works.

      Their problem is Language or interpreter Market share to profitability
      Browser Choice roads to riches ether.
      Microsoft realized IE Share was not going to feed their greed, so did a hatchet job on the OS and Explorer platform so they could mine user data and searches.

      By all means report Oracle License pricing and shenanigans but like big enough companies, market exploitation is never prosecuted - well sometimes in the EU. R and NOSQL is taking hold.

      If they want to get a dollar stream, do a MS IE Tactic to Java: A plugin that transmits commercially interesting metadata back to MotherShip Oracle. Apple also understands this. Or they could release a privacy add on tool - that harms their chosen party most. Don't stop at mere adblocking though - throw in false positives and bogus searches to contaminate the purchasers leads.
      If Oracle does want to hit the jackpot, Dobbing in the tax details of a rival company is the way to go. Post rewards for tax planning data.

    4. Re: Honest question time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A reply that eloquent and coherent could only have been authored by one of Oracle's foremost experts in the English language and its application to technical communication.

      All right, shittiness aside, go read some books or something and come back when you can string some sentences together properly.

    5. Re:Honest question time by ZeroWaiteState · · Score: 1

      I have, but they have always been products that Oracle has acquired from some other company merger and then slowly strangled to death. Frankly, I've been worried that MySQL would shrivel up and die after the EU decree expired, given the low level of activity until very recently, but it looks like it's turned a corner. Now the shriveling is happening on the Java EE side.

    6. Re:Honest question time by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Well, I never liked it, but I once worked with someone who thought very highly of their database. At the time my only comparisons were with FoxBase, which had been ruined by MS, and MSAccess...which I caught making arithmetic errors...so I wasn't in any position to challenge him, even though it seemed like horrendous overkill to me. (I knew there were other databases out there, but I wasn't familiar with them.)

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    7. Re:Honest question time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      david_thornley replying anonymously, since he's edited:

      At least back when I used it, fifteen years ago, they had a very good database product. It ran efficiently and reliably with very large amounts of data.

  9. So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who besides google gives a flying fuck?

    1. Re:So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Clearly the PR firms that Google employs to post positive bullshit about them on the web care.

  10. SCOracle? by Pezbian · · Score: 2

    With how often both do such incredibly asinine things, I'm sure I'm not the only one who gets Oracle and SCO mixed up at times.

    --
    In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
    1. Re:SCOracle? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can we at least start calling Oracle "litigious bastards" or does SCO get that exclusive honor forever?

    2. Re:SCOracle? by ZeroWaiteState · · Score: 1

      The difference is that Oracle actually still releases products. SCO just extracts rent, or tries to.

  11. Hi guys, Larrold Ellison here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just wanted to say that when I'm not busy, tanning my jewhides to beuatiful shade of California Orange, I'm busy imagining all the money thats not mine -- but that could be mine--- if I could just find a way to steer into my coffers.

    Oh and I do make a database and you can put thing in there.

    Thanks for your time,

    Larrold L. Ellison

  12. Re: HORSEFUCKER.ORG Changed My Life! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    umm, are you on the right web site?

  13. Oracle sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The company I work for has gone into Oracle financial in a big way. I hate that they are now dependent on software from such a sleazy company.

  14. Why blame wealth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why does this matter? "When wealthy companies or individuals pose as a grass-roots group like the so-called 'campaign for accountability' project, [it] can confuse news and public relations, and foster public cynicism," writes Jeff John Roberts via Fortune.

    Stop blaming wealth and start blaming disingenuous behavior.

    1. Re:Why blame wealth? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 2

      Probably because lying poor people are rarely in a position to mount a slick astroturf campaign through an apparently-neutral third party entity they are covertly buying influence over.

      That makes it pretty tricky for them to foster nearly as much cynicism, unleash more PR flacks on the world, or get their objectives turned into policy.

      In a vague abstract sense you can condemn all liars equally on moral grounds; but when it comes to the consequences of their behavior the ones with no power simply aren't in the position to be as dangerous.

    2. Re:Why blame wealth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lying poor people can't afford and have no need of Oracle. Stupid argument.

  15. Accountability? by XSportSeeker · · Score: 5, Informative

    Oracle is campaigning for accountability? Sure, I love accountability.
    How about:

    - Improper accounting practices on your cloud service business: http://venturebeat.com/2016/06...
    - Breach of contract: http://www.pcworld.com/article...
    - Putting stockholders' investments at risk: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...
    - Fraudulent practices/overcharging the Deparment of Justice: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr...
    - Patent infringement: http://www.infoworld.com/artic...
    - Project cost overrun and breach of contract again: http://wtnnews.com/articles/85...

    If Oracle had any hint of accountability it would've closed doors a long time ago. What they want is money.

    1. Re:Accountability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your mistake is to assume accountability means anything but a liability of moral turpitude. To wit they absolutely have accountability.

  16. Kettle, meet pot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    whom to cheer? hmmmmmm

    When the poster cited the quote "When wealthy companies or individuals pose as a grass-roots group like the so-called 'campaign for accountability' project, [it] can confuse news and public relations, and foster public cynicism," I was left briefly wondering if the "wealthy company" or individual in question was Oracle with Larry Ellison, or Google with Schmidt, Brin and Page.

    Power corrupts. It does not matter if the power is in the hands of a company that claims its motto is "Don't be evil". The problem is human nature. Concentrate too much power into too few hands and you are asking for trouble. Trust people with too much power and do not put other people in a position to monitor them and check their actions and you are asking for more trouble. It's really just that simple, and that is why the founders of the US created a country with a small and limited central government loaded with "checks and balances" and then told the American people to only put the most honest and trust worthy people into positions of power and then encourage them to keep each other in check. We've been failing at that task for decades and we are paying the price.

  17. Dumb question... by sconeu · · Score: 1

    Wasn't Java GPL'ed? Is Dalvik derived from the GPL version, or the re-closed Oracle version?

    --
    General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    1. Re:Dumb question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The GPL relates to Copyright law, whereas Oracle has been suing for Patent infringement.

    2. Re:Dumb question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google stole the API from the non-GPL version of Java. Because of this trial, they switched to openJDK (also by Oracle).

      Yes. Furthermore they couldn't use GPL due to requirements by hardware vendors.

    3. Re:Dumb question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Google stole the API

      Which is to say, they re-implemented it. On their own, with their own code.
      I could tell you how this isn't stealing, but I don't have to because the court already ruled on it.

    4. Re:Dumb question... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can't steal a publicly available API. It's like claiming that someone stole your fire.

    5. Re:Dumb question... by ZeroWaiteState · · Score: 2

      No, Oracle actually based their case on copyright this time, weirdly. That's why the fair use argument came up; it's a defense in copyright claims. Apache Harmony has some weird lineage issues which make the license of Harmony code somehow different than GPL, a problem that evidently OpenJDK doesn't have. Current and future Android stuff won't be affected by this claim.

    6. Re:Dumb question... by tepples · · Score: 1

      Until the Court of Appeals rules the other way.

    7. Re:Dumb question... by HiThere · · Score: 1

      It was a copyright infringement claim, but I thought it was over the documentation...which wasn't covered by the GPL, but which I thought was automatically generated from the covered material, which should have made it "non-creative", and therefore not copyrightable.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    8. Re:Dumb question... by cheesybagel · · Score: 1

      AFAIK Harmony was a from scratch reimplementation of Java done by several groups. Mainly IBM, and some GNU.

      IBM has had their own full stack Java implementation for years now.

  18. All your attention are belong to us by shanen · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think you are confusing aspirations with reality. Oracle has sunk so low that they are approaching "mostly harmless" status, whereas the google has completely transcended and redefined EVIL. New motto is "All your attention are belong to us". Your personal data is just collected for more leverage.

    The real problem is that we are forced to pick between lesser evils in EVERY purchase we make. The single-objective quest for profit has produced a small number of cancerous monster companies. I'm wracking my brains, but right now I am unable to think of a single company that I've recently done business with that I would rate as more good than evil.

    Mostly our own collective fault? I can actually think of a few companies that seem basically good, but the result is that their goods and services are no longer competitive, so I can't even justify the premium I'd have to pay. Of course, then I can rationalize the decisions to do business with the typical bad companies. The good company is probably going to go bad soon enough, or it's probably bad on the inside if I just look a bit more closely. The entire game of business (especially in America) has been rigged for nasty companies that grow like mindless cancers in pursuit of more money.

    Unsolvable problem. NO amount of money would ever be "more" enough.

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    1. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Google have never forced a product on me. Nor have they tried to prevent me from finding an alternative. They have exceptional software engineering standards - and they usually get it right. If something fails, they just bring the project to an end and find something more promising for their developers to do. They don't rely on legal threats and intimidation to extort. Can this culture survive the insatiable greed of shareholders though?

    2. Re:All your attention are belong to us by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      I'm wracking my brains, but right now I am unable to think of a single company that I've recently done business with that I would rate as more good than evil.

      Wow, what does a company have to do to rate as non-evil?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    3. Re:All your attention are belong to us by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They have exceptional software engineering standards

      Their search is good. Their advertising platform (for advertisers) is alright. Their operations team is top-notch. A lot of the other stuff is half-done. Android is barely sufficient (and has a lot of messiness, too).

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm.. Android is not installed on devices directly by Google.
      Google just delivers the source code and the telephone/tablet manufactures are responsible to adapt to their system.
      The question is.. Who does the shoddy work? The manufactures or Google?
      Do not forget there are user build versions based on the same source code, that run very well and not shoddy or shady at all.

    5. Re:All your attention are belong to us by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Your personal data is just collected for more leverage.

      Define leverage. If leverage means that by knowing things about you they can offer you more services to help to improve your life then by all means, leverage on. Give me better traffic predictions, notifications that a flight I'm awaiting is ahead of schedule, the hotel address, automatically offer to navigate to IKEA when I get to my car after having just spent the past hour on their website.

      Yeah so they make some cash on the side, all while breaking down the OS monopoly that was iOS as the only viable smartphone of the early 2000s, offering good and easy access to information on the web, quality email servers that don't make me barf in my mouth when I log in (yahoo I'm looking at you).

      Yeah what an evil corporation.

    6. Re:All your attention are belong to us by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Android is barely sufficient

      Barely sufficient for what? Qualify that statement, and then compare it against all other alternatives on the market including what the market looked like before Android (Smartphone monoculture), and then question what it is that you're actually unable to do based on what a phone OS's purpose is.

      Quite frankly Android was better than the nothing that was before it, broke up a smartphone monopoly, and has gotten better with every release, but arguably not more useful since frankly it did pretty much everything it needed to from the moment it became popular (around about Gingerbread)

    7. Re:All your attention are belong to us by shanen · · Score: 1

      Pretty good question, and I spent several minutes writing you a nice response. Then slashdot destroyed it with the <Backspace> bug. Too tired to reconstruct it now, but it was mostly old stuff about companies that encourage competition and free choice versus monsters like Exxon, Enron, and today's google. I even included a bit about breaking natural monopolies, but... *sigh* Much of the answer is implicit in my sig.

      Right now I mostly wish I could donate towards a feature-improvement project to fix that <Backspace> bug. Probably the cookie-based-draft implementation would be least expensive.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    8. Re:All your attention are belong to us by shanen · · Score: 1

      Okay, so you don't value your freedom and you are happy being manipulated. The carrot side usually tastes okay.

      If freedom isn't important to you, then perhaps you should think a bit about the stick? Oh wait. Maybe you're perfect and you've never made any embarrassing little mistakes?

      Just read an interesting book called Our Final Invention about the nastiest stick, ASI with no use for us. Don't get me wrong. If the google does it first, I'm going to surrender ASAP. No sense in fighting the inevitable. Maybe the ASI will feel like keeping a few of us around in some sort of zoo?

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    9. Re:All your attention are belong to us by BitterKraut · · Score: 1

      Their search is good.

      Google search has basic flaws. It's not even able to strip the apostrophe-s off a term. That is, if in a web page a name occurs in the genitive only, Google search will not find it if you do a search for that name. And there's no way to report this to Google. E-mails will be ignored, and so will the "feedback" you give (which is processed by a subsidiary anyway).

    10. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Wow, what does a company have to do to rate as non-evil?"

      Behave ethically.

    11. Re:All your attention are belong to us by short · · Score: 1

      Android compared to a mix of GEOS (Nokia Communicators) or Maemo (Nokia N900). GEOS did not have/require a touchscreen, everything was controllable by hardware QWERTY. Maemo had normal UNIX prompt. Just both OSes have no longer competitive hardware (which is a pain as I still use N900 - together with Android).

    12. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mostly our own collective fault? I can actually think of a few companies that seem basically good, but the result is that their goods and services are no longer competitive, so I can't even justify the premium I'd have to pay.

      Well duh. There's your problem, you're a self-justifying asshole (like the rest of us). Yeah, it is mostly our collective fault, because yeah we are not willing to pay premium price for decent products. Fuck, never mind premium, we're not even prepared to pay an honest price. You yourself admit that the only part of "competitive" that you're *really* interested in, is price.

      This is why we can't have nice things.

    13. Re:All your attention are belong to us by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Okay, so you don't value your freedom and you are happy being manipulated. The carrot side usually tastes okay.

      No, he didn't say anything like that. If freedom isn't important to you, then perhaps you should think a bit about the stick? Oh wait. Maybe you're perfect and you've never made any embarrassing little mistakes?

      Just read an interesting book called Our Final Invention about the nastiest stick, ASI with no use for us. Don't get me wrong. If the google does it first, I'm going to surrender ASAP. No sense in fighting the inevitable. Maybe the ASI will feel like keeping a few of us around in some sort of zoo?

      If you think there's a stick, you'd find it better contribute to the discussion to describe it, rather than demand people read a book before continuing discussion here.

      The truth is Google really doesn't have one. It makes its money mostly by using the information it has about you to display relevant ads. That information about you is private, and contrary to myth it's not exactly comprehensive - it isn't a full browsing history, or anything like that, just some quick generalizations based upon some key sites.

      This is not bad. This is fine. It doesn't harm anyone's freedom in the slightest.

      Yes, Google has the potential to be evil. They could, technically, start recording a log of most of the sites you've been to. They could sell browsing histories linked to personal information to third parties.

      But so could Mozilla. Mozilla could do more than Google ever could dream of doing. Is Mozilla evil because it could be evil if it wanted to be? Is Mozilla restricting my freedom by being capable of recording my history and bookmarks and purchases and credit card numbers and selling it to third parties?

      You know who can do more than even Mozilla can dream of doing? Microsoft. You know, the company that started the original "Google sells your details to advertisers" smear. They can abuse all of the information Mozilla could, for all of the browsers on your system. Plus they can let people know what the files on your PC are.

      Why pick on Google? Because Microsoft and now Oracle have run smear campaigns against it?

      Yes, Google's done some shitty things lately. Their search engine has become crappier. "Default" Android has become less open source. Their apps have become too AI infested and usually don't do what you want them to. Google+ was an unmitigated disaster. And yet none of these things were evil, just horrible, like fish flavored popsicle sticks, or Hollywood deciding to reboot The Godfather.

      Don't confuse horribleness with evil. Just because Google's products aren't as good as they were doesn't mean they're also selling the names of the porn sites you subscribe to to your mother in law.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    14. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      ...all while breaking down the OS monopoly that was iOS as the only viable smartphone of the early 2000s...

      The first iPhone was released in 2007, and the first Android phone was released a little over a year later. Apple only had a monopoly for a couple years in a fairly small smartphone market.

    15. Re: All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even a seasoned tech reader wouldn't be able to tell what are you whining about? Touchscreen is the times, regardless of the OS there's be pushing for touchscreen keyboard because industry/consumers demand it. Who gives a f*ck about the UNIX prompt?

    16. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If that's the measure, then Google has done nothing wrong.

    17. Re:All your attention are belong to us by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Who does the shoddy work?

      Google. The manufacturers might too, but you usually can't see all of their code.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    18. Re:All your attention are belong to us by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Well that's a shame.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    19. Re:All your attention are belong to us by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      The UI is clunky. The codebase sucks. It reminds me of Windows, which I describe as: adequate.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    20. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Google just delivers the source code and the telephone/tablet manufactures are responsible to adapt to their system.

      Except when Google violates patents and uses its monopoly power to prevent the use of non-Google based services. They got caught at this by Skyhook Wireless a few years back, and the company has never really recovered from the abuse, even though Google settled for roughly $90 million.

                          http://www.gpsbusinessnews.com...

                          http://www.businessinsider.com...

      Google hasn't taken on the raw business evil that Oracle has.

    21. Re: All your attention are belong to us by xvan · · Score: 1

      Maemo wasn't about having a unix prompt, it was about having a mobile phone, with a tablet/touchphone UI for easiness of use, but with a PC OS capabiites. That meant that all your gui-less linux tools ecosystems was directly ported.

      Usually servers, or background processes that did some shit, that from time to time I still need to do on Android from time to time, but I can't so I need to use some ugly halfass app from the android playstore that might not do exactly what I need.

      On the other hand, non power users had a normal playstore that installed normal phone apps, and wouldn't see the difference.

      I still don't konw if maemo model would be up to the security standards required today, but that's another discussion.

    22. Re:All your attention are belong to us by tepples · · Score: 1

      Nexus phones have Google's name on them, and they still show any deficiencies inherent in Android.

    23. Re:All your attention are belong to us by HiThere · · Score: 2

      It's not what it has to do, it's what it has to avoid doing. I believe the applicable quote is "Don't be evil.".

      That said, Google has rarely been very evil. A lot of people seem to dislike them purely because they are large and successful, but for me that's not sufficient reason to call them evil. It is sufficient to be hesitant about trusting them. Someone who's extremely powerful can harm you without even noticing.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    24. Re:All your attention are belong to us by tepples · · Score: 1

      Chrome no longer has backspace=back by default, and I've disabled it in Firefox as well. Another trick is to write long comments in a text editor and then copy and paste into the browser once the first draft is complete.

    25. Re:All your attention are belong to us by HiThere · · Score: 1

      There's more than one thing involved here.

      Google collects lots of data about you. This is threatening, but not inherently evil. Their business model is to sell advertisers access to a particular demographic, so they've got good reason to keep that data to themselves.

      Unfortunately, there are governments who have the power to extort access to that data from Google, so just by collecting that data Google automatically makes you vulnerable. If the governments all always act honorably and legally you can still say this isn't a problem, but my suspension of disbelief won't stretch that far.

      Additionally there are those who love to crack into systems for wealth or fame. Some will carelessly publish everything they find on the net. Others will use it with malicious intent. And no system that's on the net is really secure.

      Then there are those who break into something else, say Linked-In, and release the data pretending that it came from Google. Whoops!

      The whole mess is murky, and full of characters with malign intent. And this is enabled by, among others, Google.

      I liked it better when it was just a search engine, but I can't really say that Google has been particularly evil. Point me at a particular thing and I may say "yes, they were evil there", but I can look back at my own life and there are places where I can say "when I think about it, my ethics slipped a little there". Nobody's perfect. Google appears to try to do a good job. Oracle appears to have evil as a goal.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    26. Re:All your attention are belong to us by GodelEscherBlecch · · Score: 1

      That, or somebody at Slashdot could write the single line of JS necessary to prompt you for confirmation before navigating away when you have a comment edit in progress. Why everybody seems to think this is a browser problem is beyond me.

    27. Re:All your attention are belong to us by shanen · · Score: 1

      Your response is probably sincere, but too incoherent to respond to in a reasonable amount of time. The main improvement you could make in your writing would be to clearly separate the parts you are quoting from your own text. My comments are sort of mashed into your reply in various places. However, I actually recommend against inline replies for several reasons (but I don't want to trigger a religious war about posting styles).

      One point of confusion was clear enough to address, the ASI question. That refers to Artificial SuperIntelligence. The basic idea is that if we can build an AGI (Artificial General Intelligence), and many companies are known to be working on that problem, then there may be no barrier to extending the same technology to create a machine that is much smarter than we are. Our Final Invention is interesting as a recent nonfiction overview, but the theme has been discussed many times, especially in science fiction.

      This is relevant to the google precisely because the google is doing their AGI work in secret. There are many companies that are working with various degrees of visibility, but google is especially notable for their secrecy. The book provides a lot of circumstantial evidence, especially in terms of staffing, but the google is clearly planning a surprise. Apparently we just have to hope they aren't more surprised than we are...

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    28. Re:All your attention are belong to us by shanen · · Score: 1

      Okay, with the polite encouragement and a bit of slack time this morning, I'll try to reconstruct the parts I can remember.

      It focused on HP as a company that was a non-evil one, but many years ago. At that time, their corporate goals said very little about money or profits, but they admitted that they would be profitable if they did good work on the other goals. There was nothing about profit maximization, just that they wanted to do a bunch of good things. I would even say that HP might have been the best company in the world for a while, but it has completely changed now. This was so many years ago that I can't even remember the details of the downward transition, but I suspect that it might have been the time of Carly Fiorina. (Mostly I'm bemused that I clearly remember feeling great optimism when she became CEO.)

      I can't remember the transition, but there was a section on higher levels of evil. In short, it is kind of bad to become evil because you are following rules that encourage short-term evil policies, but it is much worse to invest in making the rules worse. I cited Exxon as a company that has invested heavily in bribing politicians to write bad laws, and Enron as a short-lived example of extreme investment in politicians (including Dubya), and though Enron got their comeuppance when they imploded, even that was harmful to many relatively innocent people. (One of my friends had briefly been an internal auditor at Enron...) That section closed with the note that the google has become one of the top companies in funding lobbyists. (Not yet ready to say if google's lobbyists are making things worse or better.)

      Again, I don't remember the transition, but I recommended competition with progressive taxation on profits related to excessive market dominance. That led into consideration of how to deal with natural monopolies. I strongly disagree that google or Microsoft or Amazon have or deserve natural monopolies.

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    29. Re:All your attention are belong to us by shanen · · Score: 1

      Yeah, I should have mentioned that option.

      I think some people may regard it as a browser problem because it depends on the control of the focus, and the browser is controlling whether the focus is in the input window or outside. However, I regard it as the responsibility of the website to consider the user's experience and prevent such problems.

      What's slashdot's excuse? They can't find the right place in the spaghetti code?

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    30. Re:All your attention are belong to us by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      The carrot side usually tastes okay

      The carrot is great. Indeed it tastes good which is why you get given it.

      If freedom isn't important to you

      Now how did you get to that conclusion. Don't confuse bartering something which I don't value for something which I do as giving up my freedom. As far as I know the Google Gulag won't come knocking at my door if I turn my smartphone off, and if they do they may see a stick of their own.

      Maybe you're perfect and you've never made any embarrassing little mistakes?

      Now what embarrassing mistakes are we talking about? A bit of gay porn in my search history? Visiting a questionable bar in the Amsterdam red light district? Now the difference between the carrot and the stick is that Google has yet to use the latter. Yes let them know that I was speeding down the highway. Based on all evidence globally this is just a random number in a stupendously large database to them. Yes they could tie it all together and give it to third parties but until they do they have proven so far to have my implicit trust.

      That trust is delicate and it doesn't take much to break it, but they have a 15 year track record of never once showing me a stick, so why would they start now? In other news my next door neighbour has a key to my house and knows when I'm on vacation. He could at any time come in and kick my dog, but he doesn't, and that doesn't mean he magically has power over me.

    31. Re:All your attention are belong to us by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      And?

      My point exactly. There was a monopoly in the Smartphone market. Worth noting is it took a while for Android to gain popularity whereas the iPhone sold like microwaved Hershey bars at the annual Amsterdam weed tasting competition. There was several years of a single good smartphone on the market before other's caught up.

    32. Re:All your attention are belong to us by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, there are governments who have the power to extort access to that data from Google

      Yet what has been shown is little to no extortion of data, and governments obtaining useful data from elsewhere, and once in a western world the situation ends up in court we're back to lawful discovery processes which don't include things like "google telling us everything about this person ever" but rather specific details that require the knowledge of a crime up front.

      Additionally there are those who love to crack into systems for wealth or fame

      They don't concern me one bit. Google's database is super massive and their analytics are some of the most complicated in the world. Maliciously obtaining google data would result in an incredible database that would be borderline impossible to piece together and start pointing to single individuals. Hell the most serious breaches so far have been on dating sites. Extracting "incriminating" information from a database like Google's would be a monumental task, and not just a funny dump on the net.

      I liked it better when it was just a search engine

      They do a good job of that. But man when I think how they've made things simple, best mapping system I've ever seen by a long shot, they broke the strangle hold that was 20MB email inboxes, they broke monopolies, they provide alternate tools for office, heck my wife uses Google classroom to automate large parts of her teaching and testing activities so as a result of Google I actually get to spend more time with her now .... wait that may be the first evil thing they've done :-)

      You can't argue they've left an incredibly positive footprint outside of their search business.

    33. Re:All your attention are belong to us by shanen · · Score: 1

      Mostly going to focus on a short answer to your closing question. The google is motivated to increase their abuse of your personal information because they have a problem. They need more profit. This is not a real problem or a solvable problem. NO amount of profit would be sufficient to solve the problem of needing more money.

      Perhaps you have some emotional relationship with the google, so I'm going to switch to Amazon as an example. You might like their recommendations even though they are using your personal information to manipulate you into buying more things. However, let's consider the limiting case. Assume that Amazon has succeeded in capturing ALL of your shopping. Would they be satisfied? No, they would simply be motivated to figure out new ways to get you to buy goods with higher profit margins for Amazon.

      Short capsule summary on the broader issue: People usually worry about abuse of privacy in terms of the stick of negative information. It is pretty obvious that blackmail is bad. However, my focus on freedom leads me to the conclusion that the carrot side is much worse. I suggest you consider the definition of freedom in my sig... The google is perfectly positioned to attack "meaningful".

      The following URL is for a post that includes some of the related nonfiction books I've read this year. My current queue includes one book about Amazon and another about Facebook.

      https://slashdot.org/comments....

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    34. Re:All your attention are belong to us by shanen · · Score: 1

      There seems to be a lot of emotional attachment to the google here, and some people seem to have taken umbrage at the Subject: line as the google's new motto, so let me point you at a different example that might scare a little sense into you.

      Ever heard of Personality Insights (PI)? Here is the live demo link:

      https://personality-insights-l...

      Click on the "Body of Text" tab and then the "Your own text" button. (At that point you'll even have four languages to play with.)

      I suggest you paste in a large chunk of stuff that you've written and see what the analysis looks like. The graphical representation is especially interesting. Then consider if you would like that analysis to be available to your enemies (and friends)--but if the "large chunk of stuff" is public, then it already is.

      Returning to the google, I'm not certain, but I believe that the evidence suggests that the google personality profile of each user is WAY beyond PI. (I actually interpret PI in terms of the strange loops of Hofstadter's recent book, but that's going a bit far afield, even for me.) If I revealed any of the countermeasures, then the google might not like me, eh?

      --
      Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
    35. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      One, you said "early 2000s". Assuming you meant the decade and not the century or millennium, you were off by 4-5 years.

      My main point was that the "monopoly" was in a very small smartphone market. For the first couple years, most cell phones were not smartphones. By the time smartphones became the norm, Android was reasonably well established.

    36. Re: All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe you should do business with smaller local companies that actually have a face?

    37. Re:All your attention are belong to us by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Yeah, whatever, keep arguing semantics as if we wouldn't have another OS mono-culture if it weren't for Android.

      Android didn't start reaching iPhone levels of market share until well into the time where smartphones became the norm. Just remember the millions of people laughing at Android as the platform so bare it could do less than Blackberry. But really we can argue the numbers back and forth and it really doesn't change the fundamental point which I'll repeat here for prosperity:

      all while breaking down the OS monopoly that was iOS

      But sure you can continue to pretend that the iPhone and iOS rapidly annihilating the blackberry stronghold while making a smartphone a device for the common man wouldn't have been a huge monopoly if it weren't for that free alternate OS. Back in reality we understand the contributions Google made to the industry.

    38. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Dragonslicer · · Score: 1

      Yeah, whatever, keep arguing semantics as if we wouldn't have another OS mono-culture if it weren't for Android.

      I never said that. Whether or not some other system would have come along is impossible to know at this point. I would like to think that someone would have put together a system that didn't suck. Blackberry might have done it. Maybe Microsoft, but I admit that would have been pretty unlikely. Could have been Maemo, if a bunch of the manufacturers were looking for something to use and they didn't have Android available.

      I think you and I just have a different standard for what is really considered a monopoly in a computing market. Apple only dominated a small (but rapidly growing) market for a few years at most. Compare that to Microsoft, which had a monopoly (and arguably still does) for nearly 20 years.

    39. Re:All your attention are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For starters...it can't have shareholders. It seems as soon as a company goes public it's original goals of quality or help society do something better boil down to help the shareholders make more money.

    40. Re:All your attention are belong to us by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      btw, don't get me wrong, I find it superior to iPhones for one reason: the lack of openness. I will never buy an iPhone until that changes, and Android is far superior when all things are taken into consideration.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  19. Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let he with the most sin cast the first stone.

  20. Oracle, go fuck thyself by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oracle lost all credibility in the tech community over its patent trolling and bogus claim for copyright on an API, which would have fucked the tech community big time. Like all big corporations Google cheat on their taxes and sell our privacy, but they research in new tech, contribute to the community, and give us loads of free stuff. So for all their sins, we kind of like them.

    But you, Oracle. Fuck you. Your a patent troll on steroids. Fuck you. Fuck off. And your flagship database is shitty and overpriced anyway. Postgresql is free and puts you to shame.

    1. Re:Oracle, go fuck thyself by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Think about that decision a bit more. It *did* fuck the tech community big time. Google was just able to claim fair use, which is a defense that's always problematical, and requires lots of expensive lawyers to hope to use. The idiot, or corrupt, judge ruled that APIs were copyrightable, even though they are functional.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
  21. that's some grass by guygo · · Score: 1

    must be some million-dollar, fancy-ass fescue grass roots, Ellison & Accountability in the same sentence. Oh pulease!

  22. Groups are for Kids by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes it's petty. It's a group focused about ranting about another company... not a constructive use of ones time unless the company you are ranting about is either Google, Microsoft, or Oracle, oh wait that's awkward.

  23. Re:HORSEFUCKER.ORG Changed My Life! by sexconker · · Score: 0

    In case anyone is curious, he's not lying. horsefucker.org is a hilarious email domain/service, and the site is SFW.

  24. Re:Quick, you bitches! Mod me down! Hurry! Scurry! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    It's not like there's any great scarcity of mod points. You're not depriving us of them in any meaningful way by shitposting and begging to be modded down.

  25. It's not that hard by trawg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Oracle, if you want to be total dicks to google but get tech people on side so we start giving a shit about you, here's an idea: build us a nice open source browser with no telemetry that blocks ads. Base it on Chromium. Make it fast and lightweight and strip out anything that might annoy privacy advocates (like syncing) and make it an optional extension.

    Short of building a better search engine it's the only thing I could imagine making me try one of your products again.

  26. Ha. People should ban the drugs you are using by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "what has Google done ever that was so evil?"

    Here's a start:

    (a) manipulate search results, apparently along partisan political lines, which lines-up nicely with Eric Schmidt's alliance with Hillary Clinton and Google's revolving door of employment with the Obama administration.

    (b) analyze and track all users in ways average people cannot possibly consent to because they lack any comprehension of what's being done.

    (c) sell the data they gain by analyzing and tracking users to any bidder who will almost certainly use that information to manipulate those people in ways they will never even be aware of.

    I could continue, but if you do not get it by now, you lack an imagination and basic googling abilities.

    "if you don't want to use them, then don't..."

    You have no choice:

    you can use some other search engine, but nearly every web page out there now has google and facebook tracking fecal matter embedded into it. Grab a few random web pages and inspect the sources. If you truly believe what you posted then you will be stunned to see how much google and facebook is in those average web pages.

    The problem is magnified if you consider cell phones and tablets. Any cell phone or tablet you buy today is likely either Apple or Android (google).

  27. Where do I sign-up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm sick of the NSA, I mean Google.

    1. Re:Where do I sign-up? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well - If you are only sick you have a chance to recover.
      You will never get rid of the deadly cancer that's Oracle.....

  28. Follow the money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What is Oracle hoping to gain out of this move to drag Google/Alphabet down?

    What's the game there?

    1. Re:Follow the money by ZeroWaiteState · · Score: 1

      Google's distributed database technology. When you charge as much as Oracle does for a database, customers expect Google levels of responsiveness and scaling. Oracle is getting squeezed from the bottom by free databases and SQL Server, and is getting squeezed from the top by the big specialized cluster database people. Rather than innovate, they've diluted their value by purchasing orthogonal businesses than don't strengthen them as a database company, the one thing that Oracle actually understands.

  29. can't be big bucks by aisaac · · Score: 1

    The CfA apparently cannot even afford to pay its interns, which nowadays seems like some kind of accountability issue itself.

  30. Huge Law Suit Approaching by JimSadler · · Score: 1

    You can bet that a group that announces it is dedicated to destroying a large company is about to be dragged into court and whipped until they break in half and bleed out on the court room floor.

  31. Google should reciprocate by John+Allsup · · Score: 1

    Fund a group doing this explicitly with regards to Oracle. Call it the Pot Meet Kettle Group.

    --
    John_Chalisque
  32. NSA academy of DataMining by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Must be a NSA academy of DataMining

  33. Are you kidding? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let us get back to Google. Their search engine is heavily filtered to only serve the results they want. They are the biggest, unregulated lobbyist in the world. They wield an enormous amount of influence while promoting themselves as the saviors of public interest. It is OK that someone wants to push back, regardless of where the money comes from.

  34. Oracle = The new SCO. Goodbye Oracle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No longer relevant. You will not be missed...
    SCO - https://linux.slashdot.org/story/16/03/31/0534206/13-year-old-linux-dispute-returns-as-sco-files-new-appeal

  35. "Created yourself" and "commercial content" by tepples · · Score: 2

    But what does Microsoft have that's remotely similar to, say, YouTube?

    Vimeo

    Vimeo isn't by Microsoft, as I had previously stipulated. And even if we agree to abandon this stipulation, Vimeo has drawbacks. From the Vimeo Guidelines:

    1. "Upload only videos you created yourself." This means at least one of the authors of a video has to be a Vimeo user with a suitable Internet connection. Videos created by a minor child may not qualify, as the parent who uploads it might not be an author. Nor may videos created by someone who lives in an area where home Internet connections are harshly capped, as the author can't sneakernet the video to a non-author to upload to Vimeo unless the non-author pays $199 per year for Vimeo PRO.
    2. "If you are a business or wish to upload commercial content, you must use Vimeo PRO. [...] Exception! If you’re an independent production company, artist, or non-profit, you may use any account type (Basic, Plus, or PRO) to showcase your creative work." But so far, I haven't found an easy way to tell what makes a production company "independent", nor where "showcas[ing] your creative work" ends and "promoting or representing a for-profit business or brand" begins.
    3. From July 2008 through October 2014, there was a blanket rule against gameplay videos. During this period, Vimeo was handing the audience for video game reviews over to YouTube. And even after this period, the "commercial content" rule still raises doubt.
  36. Uncle Larry.. by h8sg8s · · Score: 1

    .. has been notably short of good legal news lately, losing both the Google and HP lawsuits. He's obviously decided to fire some of his lawyers and hire astroturf agitators instead. This is what you do when you've chased off many of your customer base by shaking them down and/or suing them as well as being sued for breach of contract. Maybe the next phase of Oracle's business plan will be to actually try and compete for a change.

    --
    Organization? You must be joking..
  37. Someone aught to look at Oracle. by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

    Google aught to fund someone to look at Oracle and their practices. I'm sure they're breaking a bunch of laws.

    First thing that comes to mind is their Exadata product with Oracle Enterprise Linux. They didn't even bother to remove the /etc/redhat-release file, which is required. This tells me they don't even bother check the law or anything else.

    Someone should say - book 'em Danno!