Context :
House
Lawmakers Condemn Big Tech’s ‘Monopoly Power’ and Urge Their Breakups
Extract :
In a report led by
Democrats, lawmakers said Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook needed to be
checked and recommended they be
restructured and that antitrust laws
be reformed.
The lawmakers said the companies had abused
their dominant positions, setting and often dictating prices and rules for commerce,
search, advertising, social networking and publishing.
To amend the inequities,
the lawmakers recommended restoring
competition by effectively breaking up the companies, emboldening the agencies that police market
concentration and throwing up hurdles for the companies to acquire start-ups
===================================================
House
Panel Urges Tech Giant Breakup in Plan Republicans Shunned
Extract :
The staff report’s most consequential recommendation is for Congress to
consider legislation that would prevent
tech companies from owning different lines of businesses, which could lead to a
mandate to break them up.
To address this, the report recommends structural separation --
prohibiting a dominant platform from operating in competition with the firms
dependent on it
It also calls for line-of-business
restrictions, or limiting the markets in which a dominant firm can engage,
similar to bans on television networks’ entering production and syndication
markets.
Under congressional power, the
breakups would target types of business, rather than particular companies,
committee counsel told reporters on Tuesday.
=====================================================
Google must talk to French publishers about paying for their content,
court says
Extract :
Google must open talks
with publishers in France about paying to use their content, an appeals court confirmed on Thursday, paving the way
for an industry-wide deal in the country
The ruling may
reverberate outside France, as it compels Google
to sit down with publishers and news agencies to find a way to remunerate them
under the “neighbouring right” enshrined in revamped
EU copyright rules, which allows publishers to demand a fee from online
platforms for showing news snippets.
“Google’s conduct
amounted to saying: I’m
offering you a contract under which you give me all your rights for no
remuneration,” de Silva said, with reference to the
business relationship between news publishers and Alphabet’s Google.
..the French
arrangement involves finding a sustainable methodology to remunerate
publishers and news agencies.
The ruling confirms a
decision in April by France’s competition authority, which ordered Google to
negotiate with publishers and news agencies “ the
remuneration due to them for any re-use of protected content ”.
===================================================
Startups
plan to approach CCI against Google’s rules { Hindustan Times / 12 Oct 2020 }
Extract
:
Ø The
founders are now planning to send a written communication to both the ministry
of electronics and information technology (MeitY) as well as the CCI, this
week after collating views from the industry. The startup ecosystem will send a
single letter to both the government and CCI, the founder said.
Ø Last
week, Mint reported that 120 Indian startup founders were looking to form an
independent non-profit lobby to take on Google in India.
Ø In an
interview on Friday, Murugavel Janakiraman, founder of Matrimony.com, said the
companies are looking at “ all possibilities ”, including approaching
the CCI and the government.
=================================================
MY TAKE
:
Ø GAFA are American companies governed by American
Laws
Ø It is up to the American public and US
Congress-Senate to decide how to control / regulate GAFA ( including AT&T type
of break-up , several decades ago ). We have absolutely “ No Say “ in that
Ø But, we [ our Lok Sabha – Rajya Sabha ], have
every right to tell them,
“
You shall pay Indian Users for using their PERSONAL / PRIVATE DATA , which you
are selling to
advertisers and making tons of money. Either
you sign up to implement the following ( for which, we are
modifying our proposed DATA PROTECTION BILL )
, or you QUIT INDIA “
Digital Dividend from Demographic Data [
4 D ]………………….....
[ 14 Feb 2019 ]
SARAL ( Single Authentic Registration
for Anywhere Login )…[ 10 Feb 2019 ]
Ø
It is high
time our Lawmakers muster enough courage to stand-up / speak-up for some 400
million Indian Users, whose PERSONAL DATA is being blatantly abused ( without
their explicit permission ) by GAFA
Ø Whereas , I have full sympathy – and support –
for the cause / rights of Indian Mobile App Developers and Startups, I strongly
believe that our Government focuses on the larger OWNERSHIP ISSUE of millions
of Indian Users
Related Reading :
GAFA
( aka Monopoly V 2.0 ? ) ……………………………………….[ 30 Sept 2020 ]
A
Greed-Ship named Facebook ………………………………………[ 21 Sept 2020 ]
Time
for the Next Step ……………………………………………………[ 15 Sept 2020 ]
Only
Answer : a Statutory Warning…………………………………[ 10 Nov 2018 ]
With regards,
Hemen Parekh / hcp@RecruitGuru.com / 12 Oct 2020