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I don't get the thing about "monopoly". Let's start with one thing: copyright on databases. Take IMDb: they collect and combine totally open data on movies cast, crew, soundtracks used and so on. Everyone can go to the cinema, wait until movie ends, write down data from credits roll and put it on the database. There's no prohibition on this activity. Cinema may prohibit filming inside, but not using pencil on paper. Or you may buy a DVD released later, and do just the same. Or you may even write a movie company email asking for those data in electronic form and chances are they will send it to you or point to some promo materials website where it is published already. But the entire database is a product of work, and that makes it valuable. So the company or organization spent time and money collecting, indexing and cross-linking those data, and has a right to bank on that work. Easily copying that database for commercial purpose _is_ stealing. This is why we have a database copyright laws. Now back to Meta. They created this product and made it attractive enough so people are adding their data voluntary. Every single piece of data is quite open (maybe not really so for personal bits like face photos, emails and phone numbers). Meta spent a lot of cash making and keeping product that attractive, and now banks on those collected data by targeting ads. Nothing in the world prohibits everyone else to create a service, make it valuable, attract people, collect data (according to data collection laws) and bank on that. But just copying data collected my Meta is stealing, and Meta is in its own right to protect it. The fact that Meta did it before doesn't makes it monopolist. In fact, there are lots of companies doing the same, like Google, Amazon, Apple, eBay etc. So in my opinion it is not a monopoly defending its' position, but rather business defending its' assets from stealing. |