Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
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The whole point of them propping up Mozilla is to be able to point to it and say "we're not a monopoly, see there's an unrestricted alternative and we actually support it". The moment they attempt to control it they open themselves up to antitrust investigations.
Any corporation is going to constantly be pushing the limits of what they can legally get away with. It's up to us to hold our representatives accountable to ensure that doesn't happen.
Relying on "the people" to uphold consumer rights usually doesn't make much ground. We've already lost so much we'll never get back. People are just too busy dealing with their own lives to be concerned about it. This is how corporations get away with what they do. The public lets it happen. As sure as the sun rises every day, corporations like Google and Apple will continually extend their reach.
It think it was unusual the US government perused an anti-trust suit over the MS browser monopoly early 2000s. The climate is much more forgiving now. I'd be surprised if we ever see a lawsuit like that again, as deserving as it may be.
Google is paying to have a search monopoly in Firefox, they don't support it. I don't believe those motives from Google exist or that they would have any legal impact. It's pure business and the only consideration they have is if they can afford to have Firefox users use a different search engine by default.
The best way to control the competition is to create it. Failing that, the second best way is to fund it.