DOJ Confirms Google Antitrust Investigation

An anonymous reader points to Digital Daily, writing "Looks like the fireworks have begun early in Mountain View. On Thursday afternoon, the Department of Justice officially notified Google that it is investigating its book deal for violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act."

Anti-trust punishes success

[duncan bayne]

Yet another case of punishing business for success. Alan Greenspan had it right back in 1966 when he wrote this memo on anti-trust legislation [archive.org]:

...
The world of antitrust is reminiscent of Alice's Wonderland: everything seemingly is, yet apparently isn't, simultaneously. It is a world in which competition is lauded as the basic axiom and guiding principle, yet "too much" competition is condemned as "cutthroat." It is a world in which actions designed to limit competition are branded as criminal when taken by businessmen, yet praised as "enlightened" when initiated by the government. It is a world in which the law is so vague that businessmen have no way of knowing whether specific actions will be declared illegal until they hear the judge's verdict -- after the fact.
...

Re:Serves you right!

[royallthefourth]

Slow down a bit. They're being investigated, not prosecuted. Even if they get brought to court and convicted of some antitrust charge, history has shown us the the punishments directed at corporations are inconsequential.

Re:Anti-trust punishes success

[Runaway1956]

Greenspan is pretty damned smart - but he isn't quite as smart as he thinks he is.

As already has been noted in this thread, any company that grows so large that it's failure threatens the economic well being of the nation, something is SERIOUSLY wrong. Getting away from Wall Street, GM and Chrysler should never have made all the "acquisitions" they have made in the last 4 or maybe even 5 decades. The economic well being of this nation certainly didn't benefit from it.

That said - DOJ may very well decide that Google is a monopoly, and impose sanctions. But, if they do, they had most certainly better go after Microsoft again. On a scale of 1 to 10, if Google ranks 6 as a monopoly, MS is 10 for certain. MS has spent two decades crafting locks on the market that no other business enjoys.

Yeah, let's go after all the multi-billion dollar corporations, break them up, and put enterprise into the hands of small business, enterpreneurs, and small investors. That is, after all, what built America to start with.

Re:Wait a minute....

[Schraegstrichpunkt]

An interesting thing I find here so far, though, is that there's so many people decrying the antitrust investigation of Google for being "too successful" but going on about how Microsoft should go under an antitrust investigation for being...too successful.

If that's what you "find", then you're not doing an honest [everything2.com] job [slashdot.org] of [groklaw.net] looking [youtube.com].

Re:Finally, some hope

[Quothz]

The way it currently is, I can get a better experience downloading a less-than-DVD quality movie then going to the movie theater.

Why would you download it first, if you're going to the theater regardless? Wouldn't it make more sense to download it while you're at the theater?

Okay, okay, sorry, but that sentence is a textbook example of why you should care about the difference between "then" and "than". I beg your forgiveness of my little compulsions.

Re:Serves you right!

[Quothz]

LOL, please give us a scripture reference for that ludicrous statement. I think you're talking about socialism.

Here's a pretty good place to start [acts17-11.com]. Particularly Jesus' speech in Mark. But please don't think I'm endorsing this stuff; I don't agree that the opinions of invisible fairies are relevant.