06.22.10
Whose Role in Antitrust Pushes Against Apple and Google?
Summary: News about Apple failures and offences; one of the Rockefellers names Apple and Google as companies he’s troubled about
THIS POST does not defend Google or Apple, but it’s an attempt to show that Microsoft might still be bugging Apple and Google using political means.
The relationship between the Rockefeller family and the Gates family has been explained here before. They collaborate on some of the same projects, e.g. those that promote Monsanto (Rockefeller and Gates collaborate on getting Africa addicted to Monsanto seeds). The other day we found this article where John Rockefeller is quoted as saying “shame on” Apple and Google.
Apple is famous for its veil of secrecy around the new iPads and iPhones. But Sen. John Rockefeller and others in Congress wonder whether the company has more than technological innovations to hide.
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“When people don’t show up when we ask them to … all it does is increases our interest in what they’re doing and why they didn’t show up,” Rockefeller said of Apple and Google, which both declined to testify. “It was a stupid mistake for them not to show up, and I say shame on them.”
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Like Microsoft and Google before it, Apple is getting attention from regulators as it grows and starts to compete more directly with other technology heavyweights.
This is probably not a big deal and Apple came under FTC investigation (and ITC investigation) earlier this month anyway [1, 2]. There are still some news articles about it [1, 2] and opinions in favour of Apple, which also turns out to have stepped in someone else’s trademark, again.
Another day, another lawsuit for Apple. This time Jobs & Company are being taken to task for naming the iPhone’s new mobile-advertising platform “iAds” when that service mark is already owned by a Southern California media company.
Online ad firm Innovate Media Group of Costa Mesa, California, has filed suit in the US District Court of the Central District of California, charging that Apple has knowingly usurped their rights to the term iAds.
An investigation is also being launched in China:
There was worldwide concern that Apple’s contractor was operating a sweatshop and that kids who found it soul destroying to make toys for rich Americans were killing themselves rather than have to look at another Iphone or Ipad.
According to Reuters, China will publish the results of an official probe into recent suicides at electronics maker Foxconn’s giant manufacturing plant in south China.
The Inquirer says that “GCHQ imposes Whitehall iPhone ban” and those who want to preorder hypePhone 4 face system errors:
Apple’s preordering system for the iPhone 4 appeared overloaded or broken on Tuesday with many complaining they were locked out from ordering the phone online in advance of its June 24 launch.
This is also covered here.
Additionally, in the news we have another connection between Microsoft and the FTC:
Microsoft, FTC, Others Form ‘Internet Fraud Alert’
A coalition of private companies, industry associations and the FTC has created Internet Fraud Alert, a service to which researchers can report stolen user credentials discovered online.
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The alliance consists of Microsoft, which developed the software and donated it to the service,.the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), with the support of Accuity, the American Bankers Association, Anti-Phishing Working Group, Citizens Bank, eBay, the Federal Trade Commission, and PayPal.
Additional coverage can be found in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. As far as we know, Microsoft has not got former executives inside the FTC, unlike the FCC for example. The FCC took on Apple just weeks after a Microsoft executive had become Managing Director of the FCC. █
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