points by everfree 5 years ago

> No one forces you to use these services. They're voluntary

The problem is that they are a lot less voluntary then you think in certain segments.

* Running ads against a blog without using Google Adsense puts you at a disadvantage.

* Running an online store without Google Shopping puts you at a big disadvantage.

* Bootstrapping an online video show without YouTube is effectively impossible.

So if you are, say, an independent videographer, YouTube is not voluntary. The alternative is to not be an independent videographer, or to kludge together 5 other services that will get you 10% of the viewership and 10% of the revenue.

carapace 5 years ago

My objection is to popular legal theft. The folks I'm calling out want those nice things you describe but not on the terms Google is (evidently) willing to offer them for and are therefore calling for laws to take them by force.

In other words, what I hear you saying is that their excuse for (what I'm calling) theft is that the thing they're stealing is really good.