[breck]

> “How will you compete with the tech giants?

The one and only thing people who are concerned with the tech giants should be talking about is ending #ImaginaryPropertyLaws.

Anyone talking about problems with big tech but not talking about ending IP Laws are just paying lip service.

I worked at Microsoft. Great and brilliant people. They don't need #ImaginaryProperty protection. End that and sure, shareholders of MSFT will be worse off, but the world will be better off—a ton of people there will go off and start their own companies and there will be a lot more competition in the space.

Same for Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, etc. All of these companies rely on #ImaginaryPropertyLaws for the root of their power. Such laws are just plain wrong (we could enable every child on earth to have the same access to information as the richest with a snap of our fingers, but everyday we choose not to), but putting all that aside, if all you care about is ending the monopolization going on in the tech industry, this is the thing you should be looking hard at.

[paxys]

IP laws are a negligible factor in the dominance of tech giants. When was the last time Google or Facebook sued a startup for violating one of its patents? It's far easier to just buy them out.

[breck]

It goes far deeper than that.

These companies have absurd amounts of proprietary information on everything going on in the world, and it's near impossible to compete. You are right, they will generally just buy you out, but if you don't accept, they will buy out your competitor and then your competitor will suddenly have access to all your customers (and many more), your potential customers, your usage numbers, data on your employees, your financings, et cetera.

It's not a fair fight, and it is the way it is because of ImaginaryProperty laws.