

EFF Tells Federal Appeals Court: Google Subpoena Threatens Online Speech - DiabloD3
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/08/eff-tells-federal-appeals-court-google-subpoena-threatens-online-speech-and

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mikekchar
Well the EFF isn't pulling any punches with this press release. Particularly
interesting are: "It [the subpoena] also appeared to be served in retaliation
for Google’s refusal to comply with the Attorney General’s prior demands..."
and "Later documents suggest that the MPAA and Attorney General Hood were
working together to plan an anti-Google smear campaign."

I quickly read the amicus brief and they do not make any such allegations
(that I could tell) in the brief. While unsavory, if they allegations are
true, would this indicate unlawful behaviour on the part the the attorney
general?

Similarly, would the attorney general have a case for libel if the allegations
are untrue? I assume that if the EFF had enough information to show collusion
that they would include it in the amicus brief, but perhaps I'm wrong.

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snsr
According to the Sony leaks, the MPAA has been directly funding investigations
by state attorneys general offices.

[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141212/12142629419/leake...](https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20141212/12142629419/leaked-
emails-reveal-mpaa-plans-to-pay-elected-officials-to-attack-google.shtml)

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tedunangst
That's better than funding it with tax money, no?

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lordfoom
No.

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TD-Linux
Many of these movie studios sell their own movies through the Google Play
store. Maybe as a first step, they could stop supporting the company that they
hate so much?

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white-flame
Or the other way around, Google could cut them off or penalize them in their
app store in retaliation, citing them as bad customers.

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nickpsecurity
Penalize them in search results too. Wonder what chunk of Google's ad revenue
comes from movies. Might be small enough to loose for a short time. Do it
before a blockbuster release. Unlikely to happen.

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mc32
Wouldn't your suggestion as well as parent suggestion border on monopolistic
abuse?

Wouldn't this be akin to MS telling Dell it's going to yank windows licensing
in retaliation for selling red hat.

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white-flame
As the parent, yeah pretty much. :-) It's not necessarily a proper response,
but one in line with the thread's OP.

I'd also argue that it's not technically monopolistic, but would certainly
have negative consequences to the ??AA "partners" as well as chilling effects
on others. But if Google wanted to take a nuclear approach, that'd certainly
be one tack.

