#monopoly
#monopoly wird ja oft als gutes Beispiel genannt, wie Kinder spielerisch lernen können, wie unser Wirtschaftssystem funktioniert.
Eigentlich stimmt das aber nicht.
Bei Monopoly haben alle zu Beginn gleich viel Geld und mehr oder weniger der Zufall entscheidet, wer am Ende gewinnt.
Oder hab ich da einen Denkfehler?
One day after the Federal Trade Commission sued Amazon, the company told sellers that the suit “does not change anything about our relationship.”
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xgw5yd/heres-the-email-amazon-sent-sellers-its-allegedly-screwing-over-after-ftc-filed-antitrust-lawsuit
#amazon #Antitrust #lawsuit #FTC #monopoly
These have been reliable for me; I haven't really had any problems with them, except for the motor in each dying.
I just wish that we could go back to motors that aren't tied to a specific brand and model of furnace, so the manufacturer can't charge these monopolistic prices for replacements.
Oh, and motors without an insanely complex chunk of electronics on them too.
Hey look at this
* #FCC to reintroduce rules protecting #NetNeutrality https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/tech/fcc-net-neutrality-internet-providers/index.html (h/t @boingbot)
* Consumer #Surveillance and Financial Fraud https://www.nber.org/papers/w31692 (h/t Naked Capitalism)
* #FTC and 17 states sue #Amazon in long-awaited lawsuit targeting #monopoly power https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/ftc-files-the-big-one-a-lawsuit-alleging-amazon-illegally-maintains-monopoly/
4/
As you might have #guessed, the motor in my *other* furnace #failed last week.
I've removed it from the furnace and #tested it, and just like the first one, the motor itself checks out fine - no #electrical or #mechanical #problems at all.
The #electronics in it have failed. And only a few months after the other one. It's almost like they're #designed to #fail; otherwise, how could you make a ton of #money by #charging #monopoly prices for what is otherwise a #generic 1/2 HP motor?
19/x
Wait, there's a Costco version of Monopoly, what?
https://www.costco.ca/monopoly-costco-edition.product.4000174902.html
This is wild: "Apple is contractually obligated to defend Google search deal"
The petition document clocks in at a brief 488 pages, if you'd like a quick read while you're in the bathroom.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/27/23892853/epic-games-apple-app-store-supreme-court-antitrust-trial
Google deal may have kept Apple from building search engine, exec says - Enlarge / Apple Senior Vice President of Services Eddy Cue. (credit: Ju... - https://arstechnica.com/?p=1971491 #departmentofjustice #antitrusttrial #antitrustlaw #googlesearch #searchengine #antitrust #microsoft #monopoly #google #policy #iphone #apple #bing
Ars Technica: Google deal may have kept Apple from building search engine, exec says https://arstechnica.com/?p=1971491 #Tech #arstechnica #IT #Technology #departmentofjustice #antitrusttrial #Antitrustlaw #googlesearch #searchengine #antitrust #microsoft #monopoly #Google #Policy #google #iphone #apple #Bing
Amazon antitrust lawsuit: FTC and 17 US states sue company in landmark monopoly case | CNN Business
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/tech/ftc-sues-amazon-antitrust-monopoly-case/index.html #amazon #antitrust #monopoly
Cory Doctorow nails it.
' Now we are at the final stage of monopolistic decay. The nation’s dominant online retail marketplace not only claws away much of its sellers’ revenues but also now penalizes them if they sell their products for lower prices at other retail outlets... Amazon gets the American consumer coming and going, providing worse goods at higher prices while receiving vast sums in subsidies from state and local governments. '
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/27/opinion/amazon-ftc-antitrust-monopoly.html
U.S. sues Amazon in a monopoly case that could be existential for the retail giant
FTC and 17 states sue Amazon, saying the online marketplace abuses its power
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1191099421/amazon-ftc-lawsuit-antitrust-monopoly
#USnews #lawsuit #amazon #economics #antitrust #monopoly
Might the #FTC break up #Amazon? Maybe.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/26/tech/ftc-sues-amazon-antitrust-monopoly-case/index.html
Amazon: US accuses online giant of illegal monopoly - BBC News
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-66920137
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Coughenour
I have no idea what will become of the #Amazon anti-trust lawsuit, but no company has ever been in more desperate need of a break-up.
The cloud and retail businesses are COMPLETELY unrelated and need to be separated. For years profitability has been bled off #AWS to subsidize the #retail business.
Furthermore there are literally thousands of potential AWS customers lost because the online retailer is a direct competitor to them. Time to cut the umbilical!
The Federal Trade Commission thinks Amazon is an illegal monopoly, and it’s suing the company to stop it — which could mean breaking up the e-commerce giant.
Vox explains the lawsuit filed by the FTC and 17 states: https://flip.it/c2Y_Xt
#Amazon #FTC #Antitrust #Monopoly #Ecommerce #Tech #Shopping
BOOM!
Amazon is a Monopoly
- Federal Trade Commission FTC
FTC files a massive antitrust lawsuit against Amazon
The Federal Trade Commission and more than a dozen state attorneys general have filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant has unlawfully leveraged its market dominance to stamp out would-be competitors.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/9/26/23809817/amazon-ftc-antitrust-lawsuit-monopoly
#LinaKhan is about BIZness! #Amazon #Eshittification #monopoly https://progressivegrocer.com/ftc-goes-after-amazon?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=adreanalangstonpost&utm_campaign=PG_NL_BreakingNews&mkt_tok=ODI1LUxTUC01NDUAAAGOcX7nBmAvfYEqrAMZLyCSgZeZBUs_NbzTHG1y5p1Y-udvyALUpeiPIIRG0Yc44FDWSV8yE1SQmRsoLCSoSyVdi8eKq3kuI8MnG7q4GqmaTA @pluralistic
The Federal Trade Commission alleges that the company is a “monopolist” that uses “illegal, exclusionary” and “anticompetitive” conduct to maintain its power.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy3wzw/ftc-and-17-states-sue-amazon-for-illegally-maintaining-monopoly-power
#amazon #FTC #lawsuit #Antitrust #monopoly #amazon.com
Amazon faces antitrust lawsuit from FTC, U.S. states - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/26/amazon-antitrust-lawsuit-ftc/
"In a sweeping lawsuit, the Federal Trade Commission alleges the e-commerce giant abused its powers to raise prices for shoppers and levy high fees against businesses that sell on its platform."
#Amazon used market power to warp prices of goods across the internet, costing consumers £billions FTC alleges as it launches massive anti-trust suit against the company.
Which is nice.
#US sues #Amazon in a #monopoly case that could be existential for the retail giant
The #FTC & a bipartisan group of state attorneys general filed a sweeping #antitrust #lawsuit on Tues. It paints Amazon as a #monopolist that suffocates #competitors & raises #costs for both #sellers & #shoppers.
https://www.npr.org/2023/09/26/1191099421/amazon-ftc-lawsuit-antitrust-monopoly?origin=NOTIFY
Good news, the FTC is finally doing their job and suing Amazon for being a monopoly.
When Taking On Google’s #Monopoly, Don’t Settle For Less
A trial in the #Google Play monopoly case could be an opportunity to compel Google
State attorneys general seem on the verge of settling a major #antitrust case with Google over how it controls apps on devices that use its Android operating system. But they should think twice—and make sure they are securing structural and behavioral remedies that truly undercut Google’s anti-competitive practices in this space.
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/when-taking-on-googles-monopoly-dont-settle-for-less
Writes Stacy Mitchell: “#Amazon doesn’t have to build warehousing and shipping costs into the price of its own products, because it’s found a way to get smaller online sellers to pay those costs.”
⸺
https://ilsr.org/AmazonMonopolyTollbooth-2023/ #freight #shipping #antitrust #corporate #monopoly #inflation
"I've long said, when I think #climate—not a joke—I think jobs." – President #JoeBiden
That lack of insight into and appreciation of the literal #existential threat to #humans of our ongoing and worsening #ClimateChange disaster is a clear indication that #Biden is too removed from reality.
"It's humanity, stupid."
The Everything, Everywhere, All at Once strategy can't work if key solutions are #monopolized.
US-centric, but maybe the fiendish practices of near-monopoly communications systems are multinational.
Should you find yourself trying to cancel a Comcast/Xfinity network drop, the following identifiers are all you need:
phone number associated with the account
MAC address of the CPE
And if you want to skip the fifteen minute retention dance, the magic words are "I don't want to answer any questions about this, just cancel, please."
They will still ding you for another 30 days of fees.
This Casey Muratori quote below is spot on for most other "creative software", incl. generative art/design tools/frameworks... In this context, it also doesn't matter if these are #OpenSource or not, since 99% of people are engaging with these offerings purely as consumers and will be left stranded/struggling once the day of reckoning will arrive (nothing lasts forever, regardless of enshittification)...
Many subfields of digital art/design/engineering currently have one (or a couple) incumbent monopolistic tools/frameworks consuming/sucking the attention of most practicioners in those fields. Each time, the main issue (for users) should be learning, developing, extracting, abstracting reusable skills, underlying metaphors/terminologies, techniques and thought patterns which are more general and independent from those tools, actively exercising the breaking of mental (and practical) dependencies to free & shape one's own creative practice/process.
Artists too (rather: them especially) should own and keep control of their means of production, or at the very least understand them (in some detail)!
Yet, in the bigger picture, the appetite for exactly these things seems to be continuously waning and the "AI" hype theatre is just accelerating & strengthening production dependencies and the strict separation between infrastructure owners & practioners... These are choices each one of us has to and does make, but how many of us are doing so consciously/intently and how many are even just willing and/or able to support others working towards such goals (e.g. by embracing anti-framework and anti-monopolistic design philosophies)...
Another related quote here by Gualter Barbas Babtista (already shared previously):
“If you don’t develop your own technology, you will need to adapt to the language and patterns of the technology someone else developed – maybe in contradiction to your cultural values.”
Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. A new coalition dedicated to fighting corporate power has emerged, tackling capitalism's #monopoly power, and the #corruption and abuse of workers it enables. That coalition is global, it's growing, and it's kicking ass.
Case in point: California just passed a law that will give every fast-food worker in the state a 30% raise.
5/
Re: #Google and the Obama administration's utter failure to contain its monopoly when there was still time:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/16/google-files-ftc-antitrust-investigation-475573
US takes on Google: What to know about biggest antitrust trial in decades
This #monopoly law blog I follow is going to be covering the #Google monopoly trial, which starts tomorrow and promises to be a landmark case.
"It could determine the future of artificial intelligence, search, newspapers, #antitrust law, and innovation. It will set precedent for monopolization cases in a lot of other industries."
The author has hired a journalist to attend and take notes, so this blog will be a great source for updates.
https://substack.com/inbox/post/136950142
2/2
There still may be some hope, if we start dismantling #BigTech (well, Big anything) as @pluralistic suggests, and explains how they got so damn big. Quite interesting that the #future is built on the 19th century monopolistic capitalism, isn’t it?
#WIRED #monopoly #AntitrusLaw #zaibatsu
https://www.wired.com/story/the-internet-con-cory-doctorow-book-excerpt/
1/2
#Cyberpunk / #SciFi stories where giant corps are more powerful than nation states have been my fav since I first read #CountZero (my first cyberpunk book ever). I never imagined this could ever come true in my lifetime but I'm not so sure anymore.
How Big Tech Got So Damn Big, from @pluralistic
https://www.wired.com/story/the-internet-con-cory-doctorow-book-excerpt/
*Internet Con* is a "#BigTech disassembly manual." It explains how Big Tech got so big (lax anti-#monopoly enforcement, which led to #RegulatoryCapture, which let Big Tech abuse our privacy, #labor rights, and #consumer rights), and how we can use #interoperability so it's no longer #TooBigToFail, nor #TooBigToJail:
https://www.versobooks.com/products/3035-the-internet-con
6/
The merger-driven rise of monopoly power is not inevitable, but rather the product of policy choices in recent decades about how to regulate mergers, writes Justin Stofferahn (Commentary) https://minnesotareformer.com/2023/09/05/corporate-consolidation-is-hurting-americans-now-is-the-time-to-rein-it-in/ #monopoly #minnesota #cvs
#monopoly was always intended to represent and teach the futility of #capitalism. It still does.
#capitalismisascam #CapitalismIsACult #NoMoreBillionaires #TaxTheRich #livingwage #workersrights #RaiseTheWage
Educated guess ... EU laws work. Something with fair competition. 💪
"Microsoft has yet to explain why it's only allowing European users to open all links on their systems using the default web browser and hasn't implemented this change for all Windows users."
@petersuber Tech provided a way around the #monopoly of the book #PublishingIndustry. Now let’s find a way around #tech monopolies.
" Finally, They updated Trump Monopoly " ~ Mike Elgan #quote
https://mastodon.social/@MikeElgan/110971354195632638
#Alt4You #AltText added for those who are visually impaired or speak another language.
#Monopoly #BoardGame #Trump
“There is only one thing worse than a government monopoly. And that is a private monopoly that the government is dependent on. I do worry that we have put all of our eggs into one basket, and it’s the SpaceX basket.”
This is music to the ears of wannabe Ubermensches who inject Ayn Rand directly into their veins.
New Brunswick's energy production is often around 70% Green - so why can't we seem to go the rest of the way?
An in-depth look into the #monopoly of #NBPower.
https://seanboyer.uk/sbjournal/net-zero-nb
#newBrunswick #canada #netzero2025 #nbpoli #cdnpoli #climateCrisis #green #justStopOil
If you ever find a dead account (like an unused grandpa account) ISPs can't tell that it was never used. However 1 byte over the limit and overages are automatic.
The ISPs deal a commodity but want to charge boutique prices.
I don't have a huge problem with the casinos. They'll help three rural counties in steep decline, at least in part due to #NCGOP policies.
But you don't get anything from Republicans without the taint of corruption and hypocrisy.
--
Political donations, land deals, lobbyists and a question: Will NC lawmakers move ahead with casino plans?
#ncpol #politics #gambling #monopoly #religion #economy #rural #development #GOP #sports #betting #tourism #jobs #darkmoney
@evan I’m ‘somewhat unsatisfied’ with the state of the fediverse
I can’t be satisfied when:
• the fediverse fails to attract huge swathes of people (not necessarily a problem with the fediverse per se)
• we miss out on things like academic discussions (and other good forms of ‘engagement’), which still happen in other, mostly awful places
• marginalised people, especially people of colour, find it uncomfortable to be here (despite potentially excellent human-scale moderation)
• almost everyone seems to be a (white) computer geek – hardly reflective of the wider population
• it can be hard if not impossible to find your community here
• the dominance of Mastodon™ masks the potential of the fediverse to host (non-micro) blog posts, photographs, music, videos, scrapbooks, you name it
• Mastodon gGmbH effectively dictates how microblogging happens in the fediverse by controlling the software most instances run
• Mastodon gGmbH also operates two of the largest instances, mastodon.social and mastodon.online (both of them, imo, a couple of orders of magnitude too big to form a reasonable ‘home’ community or to be moderated effectively)
I’ll leave it there for now. It’s nice here, but it could be so much better
#fediverse #diversity #inclusion #marginalisation #exclusion #monopoly
Hey look at this
* How #Fanatics Is Building a Weird #Monopoly Over Sports #TradingCards https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/how-fanatics-is-building-a-weird
* How to Move Your Instagram Feed to #Pixelfed, the Photo App That Doesn't Track Your Every Move https://www.wired.com/story/migrate-move-instagram-to-pixelfed-no-tracking-fediverse/
4/
Just to be clear: this is terrible.
Look, if someone wants to (try to) delete something they created off the web because they don't like it, that's fine (probably impossible, but fine). But to delete content simply to cater to one monopoly's algorithm...just chalk this up as the latest reason why large tech companies are poison for this world.
Received my review copy of the new book by Cory Doctorow today. Diving into it tonight. This seems like a good place to share about it.
The Curse of Bigness has enshittified all of Big Tech - and every other monopolistic industry
https://doctorow.medium.com/microincentives-and-enshittification-574290ea196f
Libro.fm is the DRM-free #audiobook alternative to #Audible, Amazon's #monopoly that locks every book you buy to Amazon forever. When you buy a book on Libro, they share some of the purchase price with your local bookstore (Libro is the best partner I have in selling my own DRM-free audiobooks!). As of today, Libro is even *better*, because it's available in five new territories and currencies: #Canada, the #UK, the #EU, #Australia and #NewZealand!
2/
Perfherder: #Firefox now faster than Chrome in Benchmarks.
One more reason to not stick with the #Monopoly #Browser. And yes, there is one thing that is still a bit better in Chromium, and this is the #Performance Tab in Dev Mode. (Use it for Debugging, not browsing) But #CSS and other things are better. Don't support the new #IE killing all alternatives, hiding behind the "Comfort thingy", you were all fighting the IE monopoly too, didn't you?
Google: we've made up a new metric, some of your pages are failing, so we're gonna make it harder for people to find your stuff.
Me: oh. Problem=bad but those pages seem fine. What is the problem exactly?
Google: not telling. But tell you what, why not add OUR "real user monitoring" code to study YOUR website visitors if they use OUR browser product, and send THEIR data to OUR analytics product. Then OUR search product will be better.
#TheMetalDogArticleList
#BLABBERMOUTH
Celebrate 50 Years Of AC/DC With New Monopoly From The Op
https://blabbermouth.net/news/celebrate-50-years-of-ac-dc-with-new-monopoly-from-the-op
#ACDC
#50YearsofACDC
#Monopoly
#OPCollection
#Celebration
#MusicHistory
Speaking of antitrust…
It's also worth reflecting on why Facebook pays its employees so highly. There are two principle reasons:
1. It can. The company is an absolute cash machine.
2. It has to. For both selling their morality, and mental health due to the stress.
Which is what cooperating with FB in any way, shape, or form would also entail.
#Facebook #Meta #MetaBlock #KaraSwisher #LinaKhan #USFTC #Antitrust #Monopoly #EmbraceExtendExtinguish #EternalSeptember #MarkZuckerberg #FuckZuck #FuckFacebook
@stux If US and EU antitrust / competitiveness authorities cannot secure compliance from Facebook and Zuckerberg for existing and longstanding orders, what makes you think a rag-tag bunch of Fediverse admins will fare better?
Facebook are manifestly bad-faith and untrustworthy actors. Preblock, now.
Facebook is a repeat violator at the FTC. There was a consent decree that goes back close to a decade, which the FTC in 2019 found that they violated. The recent news suggests that they may have also been in violation of this latest consent order. And that is really prompting a step back and a close look at: What does it take to make sure that firms across the board are actually complying with the law? ... I think when you have companies that are repeatedly before a law-enforcement agency, you need to ask serious questions about whether these companies are recidivist and whether they have a challenge in abiding by existing laws.
-- Lina Khan, Chair of the US Federal Trade Commission, interviewed by Kara Swischer,15 May 2023
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/on-with-kara-swisher-ftc-chair-lina-khan-on-ai-and-musk.html
At the very least, a precondition for any cooperation would be full compliance with existing antitrust actions, sanctions, consent orders, and the like, for a period at least as long as noncompliance (so, four years in the case of the 2019 order).
#Facebook #Meta #MetaBlock #KaraSwisher #LinaKhan #USFTC #Antitrust #Monopoly #EmbraceExtendExtinguish #EternalSeptember #MarkZuckerberg #FuckZuck #FuckFacebook
"Monopolists are politically oriented... Monopolists don’t have to think about rivals, they instead worry about government."
-#MattStoller
https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/lina-khan-fires-a-crooked-ceo
The whole CNN/Licht fiasco, run by Zaslav and John Malone, is at root a problem of monopoly.
We let our news companies be bought up by huge entertainment or Wall Street conglomerates run by business types, not journalists.
And then—surprise!—our news puts profit over journalism.
Media antitrust now.
#USpol #media #monopoly #competition #BreakEmUp
Keep on thinking lately about how once, on holiday with other children, we played a game of #Monopoly where we could borrow from the bank and each other. It went on for four days and all that happened was that one of us (not me) got unbelievably rich and the rest of us more and more into debt.
This is what it feels like now: we are living at the end of a four day long game of Monopoly
Strategic responses are still responses. But that answer at the end!
#electricCar #ford #charging #monopoly
As of this week, #Congress is considering two bills that would help break up a #monopoly on the country’s organ transplant system.
What you need to know about the current state of the system in our #newsletter: https://themarkup.org/hello-world/2023/05/20/an-algorithm-decides-who-gets-a-liver-transplant-here-are-5-things-to-know
For monopolists and other predators, the Manne Seminar was an excellent return on investment. After attending a Manne Seminar, the average judge's legal decisions tipped decidedly in favor of #monopoly, operating on the Chicago bedrock assumption that monopolies are "efficient," and, where we see them in nature, we should celebrate them as the visible manifestation of the entrepreneurial genius of some Ayn Rand hero in a corporate boardroom:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down
5/
Hey look at this
* Behold! The cover of my next novel, "The Lost Cause," (Tor, Nov 2023) by Will Staehle https://twitter.com/torbooks/status/1658125096874131458
* #HP disables customers’ printers if they use ink cartridges from cheaper rivals https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/hp-printers-computers-ink-cartridges-rivals/ (h/t @slashdot)
* Can a #WritersStrike Save Hollywood from #Monopoly? https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/can-a-writers-strike-save-hollywood
4/