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

Google’s Plan to DRM the Web Goes Against Everything Google Once Stood For

techdirt.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 427 posts

Re: Google’s Plan to DRM the Web Goes Against Everything Google Once Stood For

#101

Post by choeger »

cowl wrote: post #92

It seems Everyone is taking for granted the claim that this is about DRM. The claim is that websites (not Google) will use this signal to allow or deny access but this is already possible with various means. Google or any other Browser vendor do not have a say on how websites use or misuse features. > There is a tension between utility for anti-fraud use cases requiring deterministic verdicts and high coverage, and t…

> what does Google have to do with how websites choose to treat their users or what solution they would propose

Google owns YouTube. Is it so hard to imagine that some product manager at YouTube counted the losses due to adblockers and asked a team in Chrome to prevent them?

Re: Google’s Plan to DRM the Web Goes Against Everything Google Once Stood For

#102

Post by choeger »

deafpolygon wrote: post #79
caesil wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fundamentally, Big Tech is an outsized part of what sets America's economy apart. Breaking up any of them would potentially be a footgun.

Yep - weakening Big Tech in the US will strengthen China's Big Tech, which no one wants.

So we have to accept control through Google or Apple or otherwise we will be controlled by Alibaba or Huawei? I don't want my devices to be controlled by neither company.

Re: Google’s Plan to DRM the Web Goes Against Everything Google Once Stood For

#103

Post by riedel »

Animats wrote: post #17

It's time to start lobbying hard for an antitrust breakup of Google. This DRM plan, as abuse of a monopoly position, provides more political coverage for a forced breakup. It's pretty clear how to break up Alphabet, because it grew mostly by acquisition. - Google - search, ads on search pages and nothing more. - DoubleClick - third party ads on other sites. - Analytics - services to web sites. - Cloud - the money-los…

I totally agree. IMHO regulators should have been looking at safety net attestation already because it effectively destroys the claim of Google that OEM have a choice and it is not Google's monopoly. The problem is that Google is really good at just keeping below the radar (only the few people will notice that are not using Apple, Google or Microsoft products, which probably does not include any politicians, the broad public or other influential individuals)

With this thing it is the same. The problem is: nobody will care. And I think everyone who should care will look away again, because it is just too complicated to explain.

The core problem is that a minority raises this concern and this minority is not loud enough. We really need to nag out banks etc if they do not allow to use de-google Android. There should be public visible lists of the few 'good' guys left. Not even tech magazines seem to pick up this topic.

I think the only thing to do for now is really actually using free browsers and free operating systems and on the other hand raise the issues (literally on GitHub?) as loud as possible. The world is just lacking enough web activism. The only loud thing about freedom of the web is web3 and crypto, but obviously to me this is just backed by some people who like keep the buzz up to make some more money with speculation.

Re: Google’s Plan to DRM the Web Goes Against Everything Google Once Stood For

#104

Post by bob1029 »

Back when I was working at Samsung, I had a manager who was absolutely convinced that google is an intelligence/CIA operation.

At the time, I found it to be a mockable suggestion, and never really thought much beyond it. Seemed like harmless IT/nerd banter back then.

About a decade later I started to reflect on what he said and began feel like I might have been working with a time traveler or other inside person.

It really does spin in my head quite a bit. If you think about how much human information flows through Google's systems... how many of us have considered some other form of intention and motivation here?

Re: Google’s Plan to DRM the Web Goes Against Everything Google Once Stood For

#106

Post by tremon »

Animats wrote: post #17

It's time to start lobbying hard for an antitrust breakup of Google. This DRM plan, as abuse of a monopoly position, provides more political coverage for a forced breakup. It's pretty clear how to break up Alphabet, because it grew mostly by acquisition. - Google - search, ads on search pages and nothing more. - DoubleClick - third party ads on other sites. - Analytics - services to web sites. - Cloud - the money-los…

Cloud - the money-losing data center service. Probably gets sold to AWS

Your solution to breaking up a large monopoly is to boost another (quasi-)monopoly? I'd suggest that both Amazon and Microsoft should be prevented from taking over those assets.

Re: Google’s Plan to DRM the Web Goes Against Everything Google Once Stood For

#107

Post by tannhaeuser »

mg wrote: post #7
saagarjha wrote: post #2

Google used to be cool and now it’s not. Wonder which companies of today will end up completing the cycle tomorrow?

Google was made possible by a platform shift: From desktop apps to websites. First they positioned themselves very early in the web user experience: After the user turned on their Dell computer, booted Windows and started Internet Explorer, the next step was to use Google. Then they moved one step closer to the user by building their own browser: Chrome Then they moved even closer to the user by building their own OS…

Google was made possible by US antitrust turning a blind eye towards Google's acquisition of DoubleClick and YouTube. Considering Alphabet is dominating both search and ads and also offers services via searches, the EU commission already hinted at a breakup as a viable measure to lead the web out of its misery.

[1]: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_...

Re: Google’s Plan to DRM the Web Goes Against Everything Google Once Stood For

#108

Post by tremon »

fuzzy2 wrote: post #74
worrycue wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s not how I remembered it. Chrome really was a good browser and I would argue is still a good browser (for now). IE got displaced by Firefox’s predecessors because MS got caught napping - they disbanded the IE team thinking they have won. Firefox simply got outcompeted by Chrome as Google went crazy making it faster and faster. Firefox fell behind often enough that Chrome managed to take almost all of its market…

That’s the “nerd history”, which I mostly agree with. Normal users however don’t care much about performance and whatnot. Their PC came with Chrome, so they use it. If you give them some other browser, they probably won’t be able to tell the difference. Chrome didn’t “win” because it was good. It won because of Google’s hyper-aggressive marketing on all channels. They basically did was Microsoft was fined for by the…

Their PC came with Internet Explorer. It was Java (that almost everyone had to download at some point) that came with Chrome.
Post reply on HN