

Antitrust complaint against Android is an attack on open source - venomsnake
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/04/opinion-antitrust-complaint-against-android-is-an-attack-on-open-source/

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mtgx
Not surprising that it comes from Microsoft, then.

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yanw
I do hope regulators take into consideration the source of these complaints.
Microsoft is investing a fortune on lobbying groups and PR campaigns attacking
Google and this is just another cynical attempt to cripple their main
competitor.

(Edit: not sure why this was down voted)

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scholia
Of course they are, but that approach worked for Netscape and Sun etc, who
spent a fortune lobbying against Microsoft.

This is why Google now spends vast sums on its own lobbying efforts: Learning
From Microsoft's Mistakes, Google Invests Heavily In Influence
[http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/learning-from-
micros...](http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2013/01/learning-from-microsofts-
mistakes-g.html)

Whether it's a sensible approach is another matter. This warning from the Wall
Street Journal is pertinent:

In 1999, economist Milton Friedman issued a warning to technology executives
at a Cato Institute conference: "Is it really in the self-interest of Silicon
Valley to set the government on Microsoft? Your industry, the computer
industry, moves so much more rapidly than the legal process that by the time
this suit is over, who knows what the shape of the industry will be? Never
mind the fact that the human energy and the money that will be spent in hiring
my fellow economists, as well as in other ways, would be much more
productively employed in improving your products. It's a waste!"

He predicted: "You will rue the day when you called in the government. From
now on, the computer industry, which has been very fortunate in that it has
been relatively free of government intrusion, will experience a continuous
increase in government regulation. Antitrust very quickly becomes regulation.
Here again is a case that seems to me to illustrate the suicide impulse of the
business community."

[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142412788732353980457826...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323539804578266290231304934.html)

There's an old rule that says Do Unto Others As You Would Be Done By. In other
words, don't start whining when the shit you sent around comes around.

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yanw
Difference is that Google lobbies for their own interests, Microsoft lobbies
against Google.

And one assumes that much of Google's lobbying is to counteract Microsoft's.

Also Google's competitors are teaming with Microsoft to destroy Google, their
agenda has nothing to do with consumer welfare. Case in point: now they're
lobbying against open source software.

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scholia
So it's the same story as before, just with different names....

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yanw
No it isn't, none of Microsoft's competitors from the 90s were anything near
its size.

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scholia
In terms of 1995 turnover, IBM was by far the biggest IT company ($71.95
billion) and it was trying hard to kill Microsoft. IBM was followed by HP
($31.52bn), Intel ($16.2bn), Apple ($11.06bn) and then Microsoft ($5.09bn).
Sun was bigger as well, but I can't turn up a number.

Google's turnover for 2012 was $50.18bn, so Google is 10x the size now that
Microsoft was then. And it's much more powerful.

