“infrastructural platforms.” "Instead of thinking about platform companies as the next generation of newspapers, radio stations, or TV channels, we should see them as entirely new entities that shapeshift constantly. Sometimes they are like cities, newsrooms, post offices, libraries, or utilities — but they are but they are always like advertising firms. Do not forget this: They earn the vast majority of their revenue through advertising. They are primarily driven by advertising priorities....5 ways to see platform power...
Flawed as they are (and they often are), we have courts, we have parliaments, we have elections, we have civil societies — we have traditions of democratic legitimacy. And let’s not forget: Platforms need us — our content, out labor, our attention, our money. They are ours to control — if we can figure out how to do it.
We take a closer look at Apple's decision to bring back hundreds of billions of dollars in offshore cash claiming a "responsibility to give back" to the United States.
Apple was the recipient of illegal tax breaks from Ireland. That was the finding today of a European Union (EU) Commission investigation into the tech giant’s business and tax practices. The result? The company has been ordered to pay €13 billion ($14.5 billion U.S.), plus interest, to settle back taxes owed to Ireland.
There was always more to the Apple v FBI case than met the eye – and it is true for this latest twist too. The biggest issue is that both sides stand to gain a lot more from this battle than any of us. With little relation to reality, and backed by a worryingly partisan chorus, the notoriously closed Apple is emerging as a champion of users’ rights. Equally worryingly, a government agency is claiming the power to keep to itself a tool that can potentially break security features on millions of phones, while earmarking a demand for further judicial or legislative intervention in the future. Whichever way you look, this feud is far from a road to freedom in the digital environment.
04/03/2016 by Intellectual Property Watch
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, today issued a statement urged United States law enforcement authorities to exercise caution in their legal fight against Apple computer company, saying it could have “extremely damaging implications for the human rights of many millions of people, including their physical and financial security.”
A decision against Apple “is potentially a gift to authoritarian regimes, as well as to criminal hackers,” he said.
By T.C. Sottek on February 23, 2016 in The Verge
The funny thing about the FBI and tech writers accusing Apple of refusing to hack the iPhone as a "marketing strategy" is that siding with terrorists is a bad strategy. Apple is not doing that, of...
Donald Trump, the GOP frontrunner, has called for a boycott of Apple until it cooperates with the FBI.
February 16, 2016 A Message to Our Customers
The United States government has demanded that Apple take an unprecedented step which threatens the security of our customers. We oppose this order, which has implications far beyond the legal case at hand.
This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our customers and people around the country to understand what is at stake.
--- now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.
"The White House intellectual property adviser Colleen V. Chien noted in 2012 that Google and Apple were spending more money acquiring patents (not to mention litigating them) than on doing research and development."
The Hindu 20 Sept 2015
"As cars increasingly become rolling software platforms, Apple and Google have depths of tech expertise that the carmakers would have trouble duplicating. And those Silicon Valley companies have financial resources that dwarf those of even behemoth companies like Daimler and Volkswagen. Google, which began working on self-driving cars in 2009, is valued by the stock market at more than five times the worth of either of those carmakers. Apple is worth eight times as much. That gives them an advantage in a business that requires huge investment in research and development."
"“Starting from sustainability, going over to digitalisation, and ending up at autonomous driving — these three big things are really something that is a game changer for the automotive industry,” Mr. Winkelmann said in an interview. “Everybody has to tackle these challenges.” — New York Times"
Brad Burnham Jun 10, 2010 "Once you start thinking about large web platforms as governments, the logical question is what kind of government are they. One thing is for sure - none of these platforms are democracies. They are oligarchies controlled by founders, investors or shareholders. That may not be at all bad. As long as citizens (users) can move freely from one government to another with little switching cost, there is no reason to burden these polities with the inherent inefficiencies of popular democracy. But that does put a special premium on emigration policies and property rights. Do I own my data, can I export it freely? It also suggests that large networks that have strong network effects may someday need other incentives to act in the best interests of their citizens."
"In the end, the big networks on the web will all have to find a balance between state power and private initiative."
Vivek Wadhwa: "My prediction is that 2015 will be the year in which tech takes baby steps in transforming medicine. The technologies that make this possible are advancing at exponential rates; their power and performance are increasing dramatically even as their prices fall and footprints shrink. The big leaps will start to happen at around the end of this decade."
"Vivek Wadhwa is a Fellow at Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; and Distinguished Fellow at Singularity University. "
Interview with William K. Black, author of THE BEST WAY TO ROB A BANK IS TO OWN ONE, teaches economics and law at the University of Missouri - Kansas City (UMKC).
"Though a fervent supporter of his former employer to this day, Wozniak told attendees of an event in Sydney that Apple could still open the architecture on its growing range of phones, computers and tablets to the masses for the greater good"