Microsoft was punished for pumping a market with a free product, with its development supported by revenues from a monopoly product, so that they could afford to give it away where competitors could not. If Google offers something for free, kills off its competitors who were charging for their version, and then starts charging when they're the only ones left, then the French court has a point.
Even the headline in the linked article is absurd: "French court protectionis
Still trolling, I see. A few quick notes: * Google doesn't have a monopoly anywhere, even in search. * Google Maps is not given away, it sports ads, and the API costs money to access * You fail to mention Mapquest, or MS maps. Why just sue Google for its maps? Because it is the best one out there? * Why should Bottin be kept alive? Why not Garmin?
In short, you're wrong on two fundamental counts: that this is anything but protectionism of the most basic nature, and that somehow Google Maps is both special, and n
The same could have been said with microsoft. There were (and are) other operating systems, web browsers, spreadsheet applications, word processing applications, etc. The courts said at the time microsoft had enough of a lead that by leveraging that lead into other markets that is wrong.
Google is charging when it did not in the past. If google didn't change there would be no issue. The change in behavior is the problem. If you kill the competition with a free product then when you are the only game in town, (or believed to be the only game in town like microsoft was) change your tactics, you may have a court date ahead. If google had charged from day 1 this would not be an issue.
This was predicted to happen two years ago (Score:5, Insightful)
Why would it?
Microsoft was punished for pumping a market with a free product, with its development supported by revenues from a monopoly product, so that they could afford to give it away where competitors could not. If Google offers something for free, kills off its competitors who were charging for their version, and then starts charging when they're the only ones left, then the French court has a point.
Even the headline in the linked article is absurd: "French court protectionis
Re: (Score:5, Informative)
Still trolling, I see. A few quick notes:
* Google doesn't have a monopoly anywhere, even in search.
* Google Maps is not given away, it sports ads, and the API costs money to access
* You fail to mention Mapquest, or MS maps. Why just sue Google for its maps? Because it is the best one out there?
* Why should Bottin be kept alive? Why not Garmin?
In short, you're wrong on two fundamental counts: that this is anything but protectionism of the most basic nature, and that somehow Google Maps is both special, and n
Re:This was predicted to happen two years ago (Score:2)
The same could have been said with microsoft. There were (and are) other operating systems, web browsers, spreadsheet applications, word processing applications, etc. The courts said at the time microsoft had enough of a lead that by leveraging that lead into other markets that is wrong.
Google is charging when it did not in the past. If google didn't change there would be no issue. The change in behavior is the problem. If you kill the competition with a free product then when you are the only game in town, (or believed to be the only game in town like microsoft was) change your tactics, you may have a court date ahead. If google had charged from day 1 this would not be an issue.