[toyg]

Uh, when did YouTube get a monopoly on streaming video? Did they force browser manufacturers to display youtube videos only, under penalty of losing access to all other Google sites?

Antitrust is a serious matter, let's not trivialize it.

[kvb]

You don't need a monopoly, just market power. And how the market is defined can be an interesting issue on its own, so I imagine it would be conceivable that YouTube _would_ be found to have a monopoly on "community contributed videos", or something along those lines. Google is obviously trying to leverage YouTube to hurt a competitor's phone ecosystem, so this hardly seems far-fetched.

[beagle3]

Well, then, Microsoft is more then welcome to make that claim and go to court, and if the court eventually finds that Google indeed does have such a monopoly - well, then they will be subject to antitrust rules.

Until a court says otherwise, nothing compels Google thus.

Just remember that according to the courts, Google doesn't even have a monopoly on search. It is far fetched that they have a monopoly on "community contributed videos", if that's even a market sector that would be considered for antitrust.

[jlgreco]

Hell, Google doesn't even allow a significant portion of the online video market to participate on Youtube. They are anything but choking out competition; they are handing their competition a huge feature on a silver platter.