The time has come for antitrust lawsuits against Google
Schmidt is right. Given the speed of technological change, it’s time for both the commission and the FTC to decide whether or not to bring their anti-trust lawsuits against Google. The longer both Almunia and Leibowitz wait, the more powerful Google becomes, and the more indecisive and laggardly the regulators appear.
Time is, indeed, of the essence. As the future arrives on all our devices and “the Internet of things” becomes a reality, it is essential that this Google problem, which is undermining entrepreneurial innovation, is resolved.
An Internet of things must be a place of all of our things, not just Google’s things. And as Google products such as its self-driving cars and data goggles pioneer this brave new world of intelligent devices, it is essential that the FTC and the commission guarantee that the ubiquitous Google search engine doesn’t degenerate into a platform for this increasingly powerful company to hawk its own intelligent products and services.
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The time has come for antitrust lawsuits against Mt. Everest. It is far too high and quite too big.
Actually, it is time to repeal this inane and anti-free enterprise law.
AshleyTKing on December 8, 2012 at 5:57 PM
Tall poppy syndrome – yet again!
OldEnglish on December 8, 2012 at 6:06 PM
Must punish success.
(This should not be construed as an endorsement of Google.)
davidk on December 8, 2012 at 6:10 PM
The Law of Jante
You’re not to think you are anything special.
You’re not to think you are as good as us.
You’re not to think you are smarter than us.
You’re not to convince yourself that you are better than us.
You’re not to think you know more than us.
You’re not to think you are more important than us.
You’re not to think you are good at anything.
You’re not to laugh at us.
You’re not to think anyone cares about you.
You’re not to think you can teach us anything.
davidk on December 8, 2012 at 6:13 PM
why are we against anti-trust laws? Are we for monopolies as well?
Donald Draper on December 8, 2012 at 6:17 PM
We prefer dogpile.com’s search engine over google’s.
itsnotaboutme on December 8, 2012 at 6:26 PM
because they’re ridiculous and stupid. The lawsuit against Microsoft was a joke. The company was never anything close to a monopoly (especially as a major competitor to it was friggin FREE!!) and the company has shown that it was not going to be entrenched at the top for too long, all on its own.
Find me a monopoly and then I’ll explain to you why it isn’t all-powerful. They called Microsoft a monopoly even though Intel and a raft of other tech companies had larger shares of their markets than Microsoft ever had.
These insane laws are nothing but welfare for lawyers and more fodder for government cannons firing at the citizenry. If you want to go after colluding nations, like OPEC which wields a weapon against western civilization, specifically, then fine but you have no reason to go after the private property of Americans and claim some ownership to it or the market.
If anything, the collusion and intimidation of unions against private property and against our government is the main thing that needs to be beaten down and pulverized. The idea of closed shops is about as un-Constitutional and insane as it gets and the fact that companies are not allowed to organize in negotiations with unions that organize across companies and nations is something that defies belief.
ThePrimordialOrderedPair on December 8, 2012 at 6:47 PM
Monopolies don’t exist in nature. They only can be created when government intervenes in free markets. Government creates regulations that end up favoring a few or one company and then create anti-trust laws to break them up later on. That is why!
ReformedDeceptiCon on December 8, 2012 at 6:48 PM
What’s funny is how everyone was apeshit crazy over Microsoft in the late 90′s on the basis that they would some day control the conduit of everyone’s personal life.
And here we are with Google. And nobody give’s an EFF. You know why right? Because Microsoft didn’t discover lobbying until it was too late, and Google is in bed with the liberal base, and thus the press give them a constant pass.
Google truly is evil. How ironic.
SuperBunny on December 8, 2012 at 7:02 PM
To people who say Microsoft the monopoly wasn’t powerful, I point to the fact that they were taken down by the DOJ with a slow drip death.
SuperBunny on December 8, 2012 at 7:03 PM
Sherman doesn’t target “too big”. Sherman targets abuse by the “too big”.
Unless Andrew Keen tried to start his own search business and Google prevented him, then there’s no case here.
lester on December 8, 2012 at 7:18 PM
Google is the only “search engine” that regularly refuses Gov’t requests for info. All the others cave instantly. Yahoo, Microsoft, they all provide any info requested as a matter of policy. Check the records, Google actually resist Gov’t inquiries at any level, regularly.
And considering the immense amount of data that Google has on us all, that is a Good Thing.
Who is John Galt on December 8, 2012 at 7:34 PM
Does anyone remember the good old days of the US of A vs IBM?
Whoo-boy! Warehouses full of documents, tens if not hundreds of IBM lawyers filing motions… and that was back in the ’70s when IBM was Big Blue and Lord of the Mainframes. Yes indeedy, all anti-trusty was the US government and found something it couldn’t move. IBM just kept on piling documentation, motions and all sorts of other things on in the case day after day after day… for years… then a decade went by… of course IBM was no longer Big Blue and had its lunch being eaten by these upstart PC makers that they helped along with open architecture systems.
The US of A finally gave up on that case… the MARKET did in IBM because their business model SUCKED and they couldn’t COMPETE.
Google ain’t no Standard Oil. It has plenty of competition from multiple companies and free software companies. Yeah, they’re big. So is MotherShip although she’s been on a diet the past decade. Adobe, heard of them? Mozilla? Android? Samsung?
Hey, if you want to go after some folks, go after the industries with lobbiests and kickbacks and put them up on RICO charges, along with congresscritters sponsoring tax-breaks, loop-holes, kickbacks and subsidies for any business. Or any charity, come to that. It is conspiracy and collusion, corrupt to its core along with the Congress. Wouldn’t discovery be fun?
ajacksonian on December 8, 2012 at 8:12 PM