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Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

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Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#141

Post by ocdtrekkie »

bediger4000 wrote: post #36

Does the Trump administration understand what this kind of law will do to all of tech?

Oracle winning will not destroy the tech industry, bring innovation to it's knees, or any other crazy apocalyptic concept people have.

It'll mean Google will pay a huge penalty for very willfully stealing Java when they knew they were supposed to license it, and other companies will be a little more explicit about getting licenses squared away. Reliance on open source APIs and platforms will probably go up, and license compliance with terms of GPL and the like will be taken more seriously.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#142

Post by dhimes »

scarface74 wrote: post #126
criddell wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The action in the 90's wasn't to break up their desktop dominance, it was to prevent them using that power to dominating the internet too.

That might have been their goal, but do you really think that it had anything to do with the rise of Google, Facebook, Amazon and the resurgence of Apple? What had more effect on IE being toppled by Chrome, the government or the most popular website advertising it on their front page and bundling it with third party downloads?

If Microsoft had built adblockers into IE from the beginning there would be no Google. But that was a strategic error, not due to law. And people were definitely on the Google bandwagon in part because of Microsoft. The "do no evil" motto was a direct shot at MS, and everybody felt relief.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#143

Post by kick »

_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?

More commonly known as Hitchen's Razor, Quod grātīs asseritur, grātīs negātur never ceases to be true in these situations.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#144

Post by kllrnohj »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #10
seren wrote: post #6

I did not follow every step, but assuming Oracle win this, will it also apply to Amazon proposing DocumentDB with the same API that MongoDB ?

Who even knows? If APIs are copyrighted and implementing them is a crime, Tim Berners-Lee might end up a billionaire.

See also everyone (including Oracle) that copied Perl 5's regular expression API, and typically even say that straight in their own documentation (again, including Java's).

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#146

Post by ASalazarMX »

scarface74 wrote: post #136
ASalazarMX wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

> Yes and industries only make money if they get customers to give it to them.

That only works if you have choices that aren't just the same megacorporation with different names. In reality, most people have less voting power in their wallets than it appears.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#147

Post by paulmd »

kyrra wrote: post #29

WSJ had an interesting piece a week ago: https://www.wsj.com/articles/oracles-man-in-washington-fans-... TLDR: Oracle has a lobbyist (who was on Trump's transition team) that has gotten the ear of the Whitehouse and been pushing against Amazon and Google.

Google can still get Trump's endorsement, just write him a check and he'll back Google instead.

Worked for a pardon, Paul Pogue's family just wrote a $200k check and voila, he's pardoned.

The office of president has never been more transparently for sale (ahem, "open for business") and there's absolutely no chance the Senate will perform any accountability here. He could literally murder someone on 7th avenue and there would be 51 votes against conviction.

Sad that it's come to this, but if it's $200k vs an industry-destroying precedent getting set, well... google should suck it up and write the check.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#148

Post by scarface74 »

dhimes wrote: post #142
scarface74 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might have been their goal, but do you really think that it had anything to do with the rise of Google, Facebook, Amazon and the resurgence of Apple? What had more effect on IE being toppled by Chrome, the government or the most popular website advertising it on their front page and bundling it with third party downloads?

If Microsoft had built adblockers into IE from the beginning there would be no Google. But that was a strategic error, not due to law. And people were definitely on the Google bandwagon in part because of Microsoft. The "do no evil" motto was a direct shot at MS, and everybody felt relief.

Only the geeks cared about the “do no evil”.

Re: Trump administration backs Oracle in Google fight

#149

Post by jonny_eh »

Pigo wrote: post #63
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...

I know Trump is a politician, but he seems to focus on the culture war and Twitter, not high level corporate battles the masses rarely pay attention to.

He's not a politician, he's a reality show host. He just happens to be president too.
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