"It has been reported on the news and in the papers that thugs have been allowed to post their violent actions filmed in video on their mobile phones on the 'You Tube' site which is owned by Google. I know that this has tainted the site and put it in a bad light with many concerned people, including me."

I'll borrow another quote, this time from Steely Dan.

"Don't believe I'm taken in by stories I have heard.
I just read the Daily News and swear by every word."

It would be fruitless to point out to Harry that, while it may be true that from time to time thugs will insist on posting their happy slapping videos to YouTube, this is strictly against YouTube's terms of service and such videos are generally taken down very quickly. It would be equally fruitless to point out the very many good and creative uses to which YouTube has been put.

In his eyes at least, Google has failed in its stated mission not to be evil and he has decided to take a stand against it - albeit in the same manner as a grain of sand on the beach takes a stand against the ocean.

He is able to make his stand and refrain from knowingly using any Google service because there are alternatives readily available to him and every other man or woman on the Clapham omnibus.

Go back to your axis of evil. Mark a cross at 1 and label it "Google - very mildly evil in a passive, more abused than abuser sort of way".

Now consider another company. A software company the majority of whose customers are good, God fearing folk who want to do the right thing, but a software company which nonetheless treats those customers like criminals.

No. Strike that. This software company treats its customers worse than any criminal - criminals are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

This company treats its customers like witches, guilty until proven innocent through ordeal by WGA, a process which is no more perfect than any other technique for detecting witchcraft.

Consider a software company which has for several years, and despite countless judgements against it and none in its favour, continued to break European law and abuse its monopoly position by refusing to unbundle elements of its "operating system" and allow competing vendors of value added applications fair access to its core platform.

Consider a software company which is, even now, engaged in an assault on the International Standards Organisation designed to ensure the acceptance of its Office OpenXML file specification as a second ratified ISO standard for electronic documents. The world needs that second "standard" like a goldfish needs a bicycle, and there are countless valid legal and technical reasons why it should not in any case be admitted. But admitted it will most probably be, following this assault on due process, and the consequence, unintended but unlamented - at least by the perpetrator of this vandalism, is that the ISO has been (I hope and believe temporarily) rendered impotent.

How should Harry respond to this egregious monopoly abuse? Should he boycott that software company, taking the same principled stand as he is taking against Google?

Take out your axis of evil again. Mark a cross at zero and label it "Microsoft - not evil at all".

It is simply too inconvenient for Harry to see it any other way.

Category: Misc
Technorati: Google Microsoft YouTube

1. Simon Scullion05/10/2007 12:10:28
Homepage: http://www.simonscullion.com/

Wonderfully put! As always.

2. Mark Dowling05/10/2007 21:16:42
Homepage: http://cork2toronto.blogspot.com

Given that Google are being sued for sacking a 50-odd year old for being a "fuddy-duddy", those over a certain age might dispute their "1" rating...

3. Chris Linfoot05/10/2007 22:55:00

@2 - my hope in writing this piece was not that people would consider the relative evilness of Google - to be sure, they are far from perfect - it was, rather, to encourage people to look afresh at the antics of another company, which are altogether less edifying.

4. Ben Rose08/10/2007 15:05:00
Homepage: http://www.jaffacake.net

After the IRA apparently killed some Lord or other in the 70s, my dad vowed never to drink another pint of Guinness ever again.

It was over 20yrs until he did and apparently it tasted fantastic :)

5. Chris Linfoot09/10/2007 09:37:25

@4 - your father's mistake was to tar all of Ireland with the IRA brush.

And, as an analogy, this doesn't really work.

Here's one that does.

Consider the USSR, 20 years ago an evil empire with weapons of mass destruction permanently trained on western targets. Where is it now? It broke up, spontaneously as it happens though this was probably a historical inevitability, into a number of distinct countries, each with democratically elected governments. Some of those countries have even joined the EU - unthinkable only a few years ago. The USSR itself does not exist anymore.

And never once in these past 20 years or more have I ever refused to drink vodka.

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