221–230 of 437 posts
"Pay your f#$king tax like the rest of us or shut the f%$ck up."
This comment stands apart from any and all implications of their special interest policy pleadings above which are all pretty tedious in comparison.
Google don't pay tax for profit made selling in Australia. To hell with them and literally any case they have to make.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In regards to parent commenters [0] link, this is the story that got a journalist's home raided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) because she received leaked information (that turned out to be 100% correct) that the Department for Home Affairs was planning to allow the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to spy on Australian citizens. Directly quoting from the linked article: ASD powers have been a source of co…
How do you draw the conclusion that the Australian people want this behaviour? As far as I can tell none us want this but once elected the politicians fail to action what the people want. Over and over again...
There's a lot of voters out there who are quite okay with the government doing what they think needs to be done to ensure national security.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In regards to parent commenters [0] link, this is the story that got a journalist's home raided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) because she received leaked information (that turned out to be 100% correct) that the Department for Home Affairs was planning to allow the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to spy on Australian citizens. Directly quoting from the linked article: ASD powers have been a source of co…
> this seems to be the Government that the Australian people want. I can assure you it’s not. The problem with Republics is that “one man one vote” does not translate into the majority getting what it wants. The loudest and most well organized political forces will get their way, even ones small in number or popular support. State security services have a long history of involvement in politics and media in the Anglo…
> News media businesses alone would be given information that would help them artificially inflate their ranking over everyone else, even when someone else provides a better result I'm not sure how Google wins this one because it seems like an easy comeback is "well why don't you just be transparent and tell everybody that information". Ultimately, as long as they have anything resembling "secret sauce" they will be…
> I'm not sure how Google wins this one because it seems like an easy comeback is "well why don't you just be transparent and tell everybody that information". Ultimately, as long as they have anything resembling "secret sauce" they will be in the cross hairs of regulators for unfair treatment (even if just alleged, not proven), and the minute they don't they will lose their competitive advantage. Because then people…
...with slightly more effectiveness allowing better competition with google itself.
You can do search. You can provide content. Doing both became rent seeking. And damn does google do rent-seeking very effectively.
I don't like the "free services" wording in the letter. Free services shouldn't be a justification for anything.
Obviously the Australian government is trying to make google pay just because Murdoch told it to. But the pretense is bizarre - that google has to pay Murdoch because it steals his content. Google doesn't republish News Corp content! It just lists headlines with URLs that readers click to go through to News Corp! Google is giving News Corp 70% of its traffic. Bizarre. What's to stop google from simply ceasing to inde…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does it matter? Transnational corporations are sovereign in all but name. If Google really, really doesn't like a particular local law, they'll pull out of the country (e.g. mainland China and, soon, Hong Kong). The "local, Australian-owned and regulated megacorp" is Rupert Murdoch's media empire, which is currently in bed with the reigning Liberal party. There is no regulation here. There is a kernel of truth in you…
Murdoch gave up his citizenship in 1985, he has not been Australian for a long time.
This is an entirely separate issue to dealing with Google and Facebook who absolutely must be dealt with the world over.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In regards to parent commenters [0] link, this is the story that got a journalist's home raided by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) because she received leaked information (that turned out to be 100% correct) that the Department for Home Affairs was planning to allow the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) to spy on Australian citizens. Directly quoting from the linked article: ASD powers have been a source of co…
What the Australian government does well is control information and controversy. The government is a quiet achiever in that regard. Australians have been comfortable for a while, and are generally disengaged from politics. Most Australians I know are more aware of American politics than their own.
Obviously the Australian government is trying to make google pay just because Murdoch told it to. But the pretense is bizarre - that google has to pay Murdoch because it steals his content. Google doesn't republish News Corp content! It just lists headlines with URLs that readers click to go through to News Corp! Google is giving News Corp 70% of its traffic. Bizarre. What's to stop google from simply ceasing to inde…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
interesting. it seems to me that if Google really wanted to influence Australian public opinion, they have far more sophisticated ways to go about it than this clumsy attempt at PSA outreach slash fear mongering. It's almost as if they need to be seen to be taking some responses to the media payment legislation but they don't really care. That's what's interesting to me. I wonder why they would not care. perhaps beca…
> It's almost as if they need to be seen to be taking some responses to the media payment legislation but they don't really care They care. I'm currently situated in Australia and did a random google search and a giant popup jumped up saying "The way Aussies use Google is at risk". No way they are doing that on their main search page if they do not care.
remember news Corp is not just an Australian company. this could be part of a bigger game between Google and newscorp, and between newscorp and the aus gov.