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Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

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Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#131

Post by mohaine »

ViViDboarder wrote: post #86
tus88 wrote: post #72

> The administration found Google's policy arguments are "unpersuasive" and argued software code is copyrightable. What? Wasn't it about APIs not code?

That was part of it. This article is light on details, but there was one part of the codebase that was copied verbatim. It was the RangeCheck function. Google argued that the function in question was not copywritable, and judge Alsup agreed (after learning how to write code). [1] It’s unclear to me if the administration only sides with Oracle on this count, or also on reimplementation of APIs, which would have sweepi…

It has been YEARS but the the RangeCheck function was copied but ruled as too small to matter.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#132

Post by throwiay987 »

_4byd wrote: post #113
jorblumesea wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you honestly believe that Trump is in any way on the same "corruption level" as any previous sitting President you're delusional. I'm sorry that reality is getting in the way of the narrative, but it's fairly obvious that he's far worse than any side has elected within living memory. Maybe Nixon is a distant second?

Thank goodness Obama was scandal free, and good thing we keep catching Trump trying to expose all those crimes committed by Obama administrators (Clinton emails & Russia, Biden & Ukraine, Obama & Iran, Loretta Lynch and Clinton Tarmac meeting, Comey & FISA, etc...).

dont forget the Dijon mustard, how dare he.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#133

Post by bayindirh »

Wouldn't allowing weaponization of APIs via copyrights throw interoperability out of the window?

If this is a part of "Making America Great Again (TM)" campaign, they may be shooting them in the proverbial foot with a BFG9000 breaking down all interoperability in their own tech sector.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#134

Post by homonculus1 »

pstuart wrote: post #46
projectramo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, when people disagree with you on an issue then they downvote you. However, when you are talking about the same government, when they agree with you, will upvote you? This, right here, is a broken system. People should only be able to upvote or downvote another person, but not both, whenever they are talking about the same government!

> the same government The same branch of the same country, but with changes in who occupies it they can be vastly different. I greatly dislike the "both sides are the same" narrative, but there were some strong elements of consistency regardless of occupant. The current administration is an entirely new beast that reflects the whims of a single individual. We are in uncharted waters now.

It is the same government. Every power the current administration has at its disposal was granted or expanded at some point in the past into what it is now. The Trump administration is not a paradigm shift toward obscene federal executive power, it has been this way for a long time.

The small-government counterargument has always been "You are not going to like this new power when it's inevitably in the hands of the wrong person". That has always been ignored--the Whig theory of history ruled as enlightened new theories for social management demanded more and more centralized authority for the greater good.

Now that the chickens are home to roost and someone truly offensive to the left has been elected, they are doing the world's biggest surprised Pikachu face. But the capacity for human self-deception is infinite, as for example the very same people panicking about imminent fascist takeover are simultaneously panicking that anyone other than the government has guns. So I don't believe that any event can shock the hubris out of smart people and their tidy moral rubrics.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#135

Post by scarface74 »

pstuart wrote: post #46
projectramo wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, when people disagree with you on an issue then they downvote you. However, when you are talking about the same government, when they agree with you, will upvote you? This, right here, is a broken system. People should only be able to upvote or downvote another person, but not both, whenever they are talking about the same government!

> the same government The same branch of the same country, but with changes in who occupies it they can be vastly different. I greatly dislike the "both sides are the same" narrative, but there were some strong elements of consistency regardless of occupant. The current administration is an entirely new beast that reflects the whims of a single individual. We are in uncharted waters now.

There are no uncharted waters. “The other side” makes equally bad decisions when it comes to tech because they believe that the government is the answer to too many of the worlds problems. Even if their intentions are good, they don’t have enough of a grasp on technology to understand the ramifications. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Some of the more forward looking liberals warned against executive orders when Obama was in the White House. They said that be careful about the precedent it was setting. Now those same people are bemoaning the current administration.

It’s always dangerous to give government more power.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#136

Post by scarface74 »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #26
scarface74 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does it matter? Every time without fail when I argue on HN that government involvement in tech is usually negative I get downvoted to oblivion. But then when the same government interferes and is on the "wrong" side of popular geek opinion there is an uproar.

they're not incompatible: All industries have to be regulated, because they are made to make money, not to regulate themselves. When the regulator is not doing their job properly, there's the uproar. TL;DR: Government should regulate industries, but it should do it for the greater good or people will complain.

Yes and industries only make money if they get customers to give it to them. The government should step in to counter negative externalities.

For example was different phone manufacturers using different cables really enough of a negative externality for the EU to step in?

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#137

Post by smhenderson »

hpoe wrote: post #57
quotemstr wrote: post #39

Is there any doubt that this is some kind of score-settling? Republicans hate Google. I don't think people inside the SV bubble appreciate just how intense this hatred has become. You know the seething, implacable anger, that bile that comes up out of your stomach when you think of a politician you don't like? A lot of republicans feel that way about Google. This hatred doesn't come out of nowhere. Google's leaders c…

I'll throw out there that I am a Republican and I don't hate google, I don't hate it with a mindless passion and seeing red at the very mention of its name type of thing. Honestly the more I am on HN the more I see that hating a company is pretty dumb, I work in a big org that big org has thousands of people making thousands of decisions, nobody has good information and half the people making decisions are incompeten…

I admit I could be wrong though it could be that the entire world really is full mostly of people that want everyone who disagrees with them dead in a ditch

Well I am a Democrat and I can at least confirm that it's not the entire world that feels this way.

Despite our political differences I think you and I probably have more in common than we might think. Maybe not politically but in our belief that we, and "our side", don't have all the answers, that issues can be very complicated and that solving them involves sometimes finding common ground.

I too would like to believe that the majority of people feel the same and that it's the vocal minorities you mentioned that create 99% of the drama we see playing out these days. I get discouraged sometimes but then here comes a comment like yours that brings back a little hope that I am correct in thinking that most people are normal, ordinary people that are just as perplexed as I am over all the vitriolic back and forth they see in the news and social media.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#138

Post by kelnos »

_4byd wrote: post #123
okaram wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that ... Benghazi was an error, no corruption ; the IRS did not target conservative groups, Obamacare did not mandate you change doctors in any way .. Normally I assume it is stupidity rather than malice, but now ...

Casually state talking points as fact without citation. Proceed to call the commenter stupid and malicious. Projection perhaps?

I mean, "casually state talking points as fact without citation" is exactly what the original commenter did, so I don't see why the responder should be held to a higher standard.

There's a reason why we don't like political topics on HN, and this thread is proof.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#139

Post by dhimes »

scarface74 wrote: post #16
0xff00ffee wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

The government caused the phone monopoly and the slap on the risk had nothing to do with Microsoft's missteps when it came to the internet and later mobile. Microsoft still has the same dominance on the desktop that they had during the 90's.

But they were on their way to owning internet communication. They were trying to make it so the only way to communicate was to use office products with Internet Explorer. Fortunately, they didn't get very far.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#140

Post by nostromo »

sixothree wrote: post #110
nostromo wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google and Amazon both fucked up by weighing in on political campaigns. And now they're shocked, shocked , that getting political with your monopolistic companies carries some political risk. The solution is easy enough -- don't talk about politics at work -- and in particular not if you're the CEO.

Is it too much to expect our government to not play political games?

Is it too much to expect politicians to not play political games?

Sure, that'd be great, but it's never happened before and will likely not happen for the foreseeable future.

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