this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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[–] [email protected] 215 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Doesn't this break competition laws?
Couldn't Google/YouTube be sued over this?

[–] [email protected] 155 points 1 year ago (7 children)

Microsoft got repeatedly hit over this kind of shenanigans in MSIE during and after the anti-trust lawsuit.

Sadly, that was 20 years ago. I'm not having much faith in American justice system doing anything about this nowadays.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They really weren't that effective with Microsoft then either. The antitrust was far too late for Netscape and allowed Microsoft to hold a dominate market share with IE until they allowed the browser to deprecate and Google came in with a much better browser and took over the browser market (and are now doing the same bullshit).

As long as we keep giving these companies meaningless fines or wait until the damage is irreversible companies are going to always push the limit and look at any repercussions as just a cost of doing business.

So yeah, not much faith in anything changing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

That is why I am in favour of the financial death penalty. Fines should be 10x the damage done. If a company cannot pay it, they are required to become a non profit.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Fines should be 10x the damage done

What are your monetary damages for this?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think a better solution is one year of global revenue (not profit) as it’s really hard to determine damages in cases like this. That way, it’s legitimately a death sentence regardless of the size or scale of the company. If you set the fines at an amount not linked to profit or revenue, all you’re doing is making it extremely hard for the little guy but less hard for the big corporations - the ones you really want to go after.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I like it, much more practical.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yeah stuff like this really needs to be percentual and fined to the CEOs and the board, not the company as an entity.

Oh, Microsoft valued at 200 bil for shareholders? Well sorry C's and boardies, you gotta scrunge up 2 bil each now, personally. Those are fines they'd at least notice.

(edit)
Come to think of it, the fined-personally-to-the-decisionmaker might really be the big thing here on its own. The company did this shit under you, CEO. It was your corporate policy and hiring practices that allowed this to happen, even if you did not press the button. You pay up. You take the blame, not the people under you just following orders.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This just ignores the reason that corporations exist in the first place, to shield people from personal liability. There is a mechanism by which you can go after that called "piercing the corporate veil" but it is an extremely high bar to hit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

the reason that corporations exist in the first place, to shield people from personal liability

Which is the problem. As parent rightly pointed out, lack of personal liability is exactly why corporations pull this kind of bullshit. The solution is to lower the bar for holding individuals, particularly executives, personally responsible for the actions of the organizations they control.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You should look into all of the anti-monopoly actions that Lina Khan has been pursuing as head of the FTC. Under her tenure the watchdogs have had more teeth than ever before. It takes time for this stuff to make a difference, but they are most decidedly doing the work (Cory Doctorow has some excellent write ups on this if you check his blog).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

He lionizes her a bit much, but yes she has done far more than her predecessor.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

EU anthem intensifies

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Microsoft got repeatedly hit over this kind of shenanigans in MSIE during and after the anti-trust lawsuit.

And all they had to do was drag the trial out until a favorable administration took office.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Well they also dragged out the trial so long that time and costs rendered the plaintiff (Netscape) hopeless.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

malicious slowdowns like this are why microsoft abandoned (non chrome) edge, too. Cause they couldnt keep up with fixing the constant fuckery google was doing, and users are idiots and blamed edge for all the problems.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Microsoft was kind of getting their comeuppance there. They did the exact same billshit when they dominated the market with IE.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You're right.

Lets let google get away with murder because Microsoft did bad a decade+ ago.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I don't think that's what I said? At least it's not how I meant it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

You can always count on lobbiests to enshitifiy the laws

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Not in the U.S. Not as long as conservatives (incl. neo-liberals) have the power to protect them.

Our conservative politicians are bought and paid for by large anti-competitive corporations.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Bought and paid for with a pittance.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

They are bribed for so little that it would be almost easier to make a dystopian sounding PAC with money raised by small dollar donations to bribe them to do what the people want instead of them doing what rich donors want.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Only if that PAC could somehow guarantee a cushy job post politics.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Well, can't hurt to try.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

Yeah, the fines just aren't big enough for Google to care.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Wait for it to become equally shitty in all browsers, and then you can only watch in a special Youtube Windows app.