Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

axios.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 232 posts

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#71

Post by ticmasta »

0xff00ffee wrote: post #3
vikingcaffiene wrote: post #2

IMO there's two ways to read this: either A) this is a baldly transparent attempt to "own the libs" and punish a company that the administration sees as a threat or B) they are too incompetent to understand the technical nuances of the case and are essentially morons. Maybe both? This administration can't be thrown out on their collective asses fast enough...

Both. 50 years of people cynically saying "all politicians are crooks". And now we have legitimate sleazeballs running the country and nobody believes it. On the one hand, Google is huge and needs competition. On the other hand: not this way. Antitrust and monopoly laws exist for a reason, but if you look at telephones in the 80's and microsoft & intel in the 90's, better lawyers get you around that. We need trustbus…

how many hands do you have :)

The story could largely be reduced to: Giant Multinational sues Giant Multinational; both gain support of other Giant Multinationals while World's Most Powerful Government sides with plaintiff Giant Multinational.

The EFF needs to 100,000x larger to influence this level of game.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#73

Post by zuckluni »

vikingcaffiene wrote: post #2

IMO there's two ways to read this: either A) this is a baldly transparent attempt to "own the libs" and punish a company that the administration sees as a threat or B) they are too incompetent to understand the technical nuances of the case and are essentially morons. Maybe both? This administration can't be thrown out on their collective asses fast enough...

Respectfully, ( that's a cool name ) but I think you're missing the point here by reducing it to this bipolar conflict between politically insecure acting out and idiocy. I think it's a much cooler and bigger picture.

I think the case is actually very interesting, and not clear cut. It's going to be interesting to find out what the law means as applied to software in this way. I think it's fascinating. A real test between the 'old power' of the law, and the 'new power' of software, I think seeing this play out and considering the implications is incredibly interesting, and as tech people, we're the best placed to enjoy how interesting is.

All the shrill rhetoric of both sides and press aside, I think it's a very significant case even if they weren't massive companies (...tho maybe it couldn't have come this far if the companies hadn't been able to afford it).

In a similar, but less glamorous vein was the LinkedIn vs somebody data scraping case, the outcome of which was very interesting and meaningful. Anyway, I hope people can appreciate the significance of the case without dismissing or simplifying it in this shrill, childish way, and can think about the software implications, which are probably going to be very interesting.

I mean when it's all done we'll probably get to know where we all stand more clearly with software, licensing, re-use and so on, and probably new opportunities we don't see clearly now will become possible because of how the law is figured regarding this. I think that's fascinating, and has nothing to do with idiocy or politics.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#74

Post by _ea1k »

gadders wrote: post #52
Fauntleroy wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whataboutism does not in any way dismiss the fact that Ellison's fundraising efforts for the current administration could play into this. Especially given the behavior of the justice department over the past few months.

It's not whataboutism. I am demonstrating that two politically opposed administrations came to the same decision. This implies that the basis of the decision may not be campaign contributions.

I agree... I upvoted your reply as you have a legitimate question there.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#75

Post by dragonwriter »

gadders wrote: post #25
_ea1k wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget the fundraising efforts by Ellison for the same administration supporting them in this.

From the article: >> At an earlier stage in litigation, the Obama administration took a similar position, urging the Supreme Court not to accept Google's appeal. Did Ellison do a fundraiser for Obama as well?

Note that the questions presented were different in the earlier appeal, particularly, because the District Court had ruled against copyrightability, fair use was not a developed argument.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#76

Post by zentiggr »

jrs235 wrote: post #45
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #41

> At an earlier stage in litigation, the Obama administration took a similar position, urging the Supreme Court not to accept Google's appeal. It seems the Trump administration position is not really all that different than the previous administrations.

So to reverse the Trump administration's support, everyone should just start tweeting how Trump agrees with Obama and supports the Obama administration's position on this issue...

Given how much space Twitter seems to occupy in Trump's head, maybe this is the only possible channel of control... maybe lock his feed up in some sort of info bubble just like politicians want to do to us.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#77

Post by zentiggr »

voxl wrote: post #62
ur-whale wrote: post #50

20 years of supporting the dems financially and otherwise ... what goes around comes around.

What does this even mean? That you should be wary that your country will eventually go insane and elect a proto-fascist? Who in there right mind would do business that way?

Will? Where have you been since 2016? Too far down that path already.

I hesitate to mention the Dead Zone...

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#78

Post by gnulinux »

jedieaston wrote: post #40
bitL wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is Fuchsia relevant to Java API Oracle is chasing them for? Google's back up plan is Kotlin anyway; they can push new version of API that completely severs backward compatibility while providing some library for "legacy app API translation".

I thought that Kotlin required the JVM to run?

JVM is fair game; this case is about Java SDK interface.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#80

Post by jorblumesea »

0xff00ffee wrote: post #3
vikingcaffiene wrote: post #2

IMO there's two ways to read this: either A) this is a baldly transparent attempt to "own the libs" and punish a company that the administration sees as a threat or B) they are too incompetent to understand the technical nuances of the case and are essentially morons. Maybe both? This administration can't be thrown out on their collective asses fast enough...

Both. 50 years of people cynically saying "all politicians are crooks". And now we have legitimate sleazeballs running the country and nobody believes it. On the one hand, Google is huge and needs competition. On the other hand: not this way. Antitrust and monopoly laws exist for a reason, but if you look at telephones in the 80's and microsoft & intel in the 90's, better lawyers get you around that. We need trustbus…

> now we have legitimate sleazeballs running the country and nobody believes it

I don't think "no one believes it", just enough ignorant partisans or malicious people to enable it. Either they get their news from Fox News, Breitbart and other highly biased sources, or they know exactly what they're doing, and want to loot the country for gain.

Post reply on HN