Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook in crosshairs: Politicos stick monopoly probe into Silicon Valley

American lawmakers are opening an investigation into the dominance of large digital companies in their respective marketplaces, sending a collective shudder across Silicon Valley. Representatives on the House Judiciary Committee and the Antitrust Subcommittee said Tuesday this week they will hold a series of hearings “on the …

[Chris G]

What are the chances

That this will come to anything positive for the consumer, looks as though the army of lobbyists will be looking fo more cash and brown envelopes.

[chivo243]

That's a Bargain!

"Google, Amazon, and Facebook spent a collective $48m on lobbying the US government in 2018 alone."

Considering what these companies bring in on a daily basis, 16 mil a piece, chump change to them, just some walkin' around money.

[Keven E]

Re: That's a Bargain!

We need to stop calling them lobbyists.

"Sugar daddy"... perhaps "briber"... or just "john".

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: That's a Bargain!

John Brown Nose.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: That's a Bargain!

Yeah, exactly. Head up to the Reg - don't do what reporters always do. Throw figures. Figures only matter in relation to other figures.

[diodesign]

"Figures only matter in relation to other figures."

Yeah obviously it's not much in terms of product revenue and profit but that's not the point. If you click through the link, you see the headline

"Biggest Washington DC lobbyist is now a tech giant (yes, it's Google)"

There's your context.

C.

[Beau]

Now, now ,now!

There's no need whatsoever for any investigations! This is just perfectly normal American (mainly) corporate greed. Only fools give competitors a fair chance, or pay taxes.

[Long John Brass]

A missed ooportunity

Head line should have been

"Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook in crosshairs: Politicos stick monopoly probe up Silicon Valley"

Yeah yeah, I'll get my coat; No need to push

[whitepines]

Should add Disney to that list. They now control all access to a century of at least leftpondian cultural heritage. Either get rid of the DMCA and its ilk or get rid of Disney.

Roast mouse, rotissarie style please...

[Anonymous Coward]

"control all access to a century of at least leftpondian cultural heritage"

You have a very, very narrow view of "leftpondian cultural heritage". I suggest you to broaden it - a little beyond Mickey Mouse and Star Wars... and anyway antitrust law was never designed to let you get your movies for free, sorry. Actually, healthy competition also needs IP protection.

[whitepines]

Re: "control all access to a century of at least leftpondian cultural heritage"

What a narrow view you have. What part of Disney taking written works and effectively destroying them don't you understand?

I don't want movies for free. I don't care about Star Wars. I want to purchase a work ONCE and view it however, whenever, and wherever I want in complete privacy. Like these things called "printed books" that IP law was fundamentally designed around and for. Disney wants their "vault", timed conditional access, streaming only, etc. -- those were NEVER part of the deliberations leading to copyright or other IP law. Read a history book sometime, but be sure you don't go to a library -- in your view that would be "stealing".

I know you are a copyright maximalist. Again, why do you give Disney a hall pass for not paying my ancestors for the works they took from the public domain, making billions from those aggregate works they stole (using your maximalist view) from my ancestors without permission? Where are my royalty payments as a great grandchild of some of those authors? Why weren't my ancestors allowed to say that their works shouldn't have been used in a Disney movie at all under any conditions? Many would have said " absolutely NOT, you will not use my music or story in a cartoon under any conditions!". In fact many authors did exactly that -- why do you think early Disney raided the public domain instead of using more current / culturally relevant, but still copyrighted, stories and music?

Door swings both ways you know...maybe you would be fine with film as an art form never coming into being, but that would also have been a tremendous loss for society. You do know that the earliest film works either took from the public domain or were porno flicks, right? And that the latter almost got the entire technology banned?

I get you want to charge rent on your lucky photos and have your greedy great grandchildren able to dictate terns and conditions for access. You want to be the next Disney, the next copyright lottery winner. Well, here's reality -- everyone has a cell phone camera, or even maybe a DSLR, these days. There's almost always a second source photo available under much better terms, and even if technically inferior guess which one people will remember after it's widely spread under those better terms?

Kinda scary knowing your life work is a complete waste, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Twittler

Twittler asured that the boss of Twitter was “loyal” in a not so private conversation.

[Claptrap314]

Didn't start in Jan, 2017

Partisanship has been steadily ratcheting up, especially in the House, for decades. If I had to put a date on it, I would suggest that our victory in the Cold War opened the floodgates.

But it's hardly a new thing. Read Lincoln on the National Bank. There are plenty of other examples.