By Seton Motley
When either behaves badly – it is devastating to We the People.
When both behave badly – it is cataclysmic for We the People.
As of July 2020, here’s the US smart phone marketshare data. There are three colors available on the chart. One for Apple, one for Google and one for all other smart phones combined. You can not see the third color at all.
That’s probably because as of May 2020, the data is Apple 52.4% and Google 47%. For a duopoly grand total 99.4%. That is some serious market domination.
So when Apple and Google both decided last Friday to remove Parler’s apps from their respective app stores – Parler was instantly rendered a digital nonperson. (Sunday night came the coup de grace – Amazon and its Web Services removed Parler from their server farms and thus the Internet.)
Of course, we are in the very early stages of the already-great-and-growing Digital Age. Everything that can be online is either online – or rapidly headed that way.
When Apple and Google together monolithically control trillions of dollars a year of our nation’s economy?
They get a little bossy and larcenous.
So Intellectual Property (IP) – its creation, implementation and protection – is now even more important than ever. Which I would have fairly recently in human history sworn wasn’t possible.
It has always been important to protect physical property. Stealing someone’s car is illegal – and absolutely should be. Because you’ve deprived them of their transportation – and the money they spent obtaining it.
But digital property theft is orders-of-magnitude worse. Because the theft is immediately scalable. Once you have the computer code for Product X – you can make trillions of copies of Product X.
Your theft-enabled sales of the product makes your sales of it 100% profit. And you can charge way less than the person from whom you stole it – because you didn’t spend the millions or billions of dollars it took to create it. So you can dramatically undercut your victim – victimizing them again.
If you reward theft over creation – you will very quickly have no more creation.
Market-dominating Apple and Google both stole key components of their respective market-owning smart phones. And both have a long history of stealing IP of all sorts….
Apple
Apple Finally Admits They’ve Been Stealing Billions of Dollars from Qualcomm for Years:“In February 2017, iMonster Apple stopped paying Qualcomm for the patented technologies Qualcomm invented – and Apple used in their wireless devices.
“Please note: Apple had signed multiple contracts – in which they agreed to pay Qualcomm for permission to use the patented technologies Qualcomm invented.
“Please also note: Apple continued to subsequently sell millions of wireless devices – for tens of billions of dollars – containing the patented technologies Qualcomm invented. For which Apple had signed multiple contracts – in which they agreed to pay Qualcomm for permission to use the patented technologies Qualcomm invented….
“Without Qualcomm’s inventions – an iPhone is very little more than a skinny rotary phone….”
“Apple then went one step further in its thievery. It reversed engineered Qualcomm’s tech – and illegally taught Intel how to replicate it…..
“Lawsuits immediately sprung up here in the United States – and all over the world.”
Apple spending years stealing money from and undermining the people who have single-handedly kept us wirelessly ahead of Communist China – is more than a mite problematic.
Eventually, thankfully, Reality reared its pretty head.
But not all of Apple’s IP theft victims are capable of doing anything about it. Because most everyone is way too small to do anything about it. (Apple Market Cap: $2.17 trillion.) Which is awful – and almost certainly a part of the reason why – Apple steals IP all the time.
Stolen Ideas: Apple Didn’t Build That [Infographic]
Apple Steals Innovation from the Heart of the Linux Community
Texas Jury Orders Apple to Pay for Wireless Patent Infringement
Apple Must Pay WiLan Over iPhone Patent Dispute
Apple Hit with $13B Lawsuit for Stealing the iPhone Concept
Top Five Features Apple Stole from Samsung
Apple Sued for Patent Infringement over Touch Screen Functionality
Apple Accused of Stealing Dual-Camera Technology Used in Latest iPhones
Masimo Sues Apple over Apple Watch Patents, Alleged Theft of Trade Secrets
That’s what cops call a REALLY awful rap sheet.
Hot Java: Google Yet Again Caught Stealing Other Peoples’ Stuff
Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc.:
“Google LLC v. Oracle America, Inc. is an ongoing legal case within the United States related to the nature of computer code and copyright law.
“The dispute centers on the use of parts of the Java programming language’s application programming interfaces (APIs), which are owned by Oracle (through subsidiary, Oracle America, Inc., originating from Sun Microsystems), within early versions of the Android operating system by Google.
“Google has admitted to using the APIs….”
Wait – Google admitted it? Yes indeed.
Wait – Google admitted it? Yes indeed.
The Email Where Google Admits They Stole the Intellectual Property to Build Android:
“‘The e-mail, from Google engineer Tim Lindholm to the head of Google’s Android division, Andy Rubin, recommends that Google negotiate for a license to (Oracle’s) Java rather than pick an alternative system….
“‘The second paragraph of the email reads:
“‘“What we’ve actually been asked to do by Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin] (Google’s founders) is to investigate what technical alternatives exist to Java for Android and Chrome.
“‘“We’ve been over a bunch of these and think they all suck. We conclude that we need to negotiate a license for Java under the terms we need.”’
“Except Google never did negotiate for Android “a license for Java under the terms we need.”
“But they released Android anyway.
“That’s not legal.”
Apple denied its quite obvious IP theft for several years – then admitted its quite obvious IP theft and settled with its victim.
Google has defied Reality and its victim for more than a decade. And hasn’t acquiesced. They have instead taken it all the way up the judicial food chain.
Google’s legal arguments are somehow even more pathetic than is their blatant, brazen theft.
Google: ‘If You Don’t Let Us Steal – People Will Stop Making Things for Us to Steal’
We await the Court’s ruling….
Here’s Hoping Wednesday Begins a Supreme Court Reckoning for Monster Thief Google
Is this Google mass heist a one-off? Of course not. It is Google industrial policy.
Behold: An Avalanche of Headlines Chronicling Google’s Systemic Theft:
“Google steals. All the time – from everyone.
“If you have a good idea – a cool new product, a cool new way of doing something – very soon Google will have a good idea…and you will have nothing.”
Google’s Business Model – Is Theft
The Evidence Google’s Systematic Theft is Anti-Competitive
How Google Steals Ideas From Entrepreneurs! The Google Innovation Theft Factory
Google Retracts After Caught Stealing Ideas
Google Sued for Copyright Infringement by Photographers and Visual Artists
Authors Sue Google Over Google Print
Publishers to Sue Google Over Copyright
Google Settles Copyright Dispute with Belgium Newspapers
Sonos Sues Google, Alleging It Stole Its Wireless Speaker Technology
Google, YouTube Receive Record Fine for Violating Children’s Privacy
Genius Claims It Busted Google Stealing by Hiding a Secret Code in Lyrics That Spells ‘Red Handed’
How Google Is Stealing Your Personal Health Data
Google Sued Over Tracking User Location Amid Privacy Concerns
RIP: How to Stop Google from Stealing All Your Data After You Die
That’s what cops call a REALLY, REALLY awful rap sheet.
When Apple and Google together monolithically control trillions of dollars a year of our nation’s economy?
They get a little bossy and larcenous.