ProtonMail vs Apple

[Richard Gaskin]

Sean Cole wrote:

 > It's all a pointless debate. Apple can do what it likes with THEIR
 > *platform*! if YOU _choose_ not to agree with their policies for use
 > on THEIR platform, YOU can _choose_ to go elsewhere.
 >
 > The same or similar issues come up with ALL brands! Google, Samsung,
 > Nike, AT&T, Ford, Cadbury, so on and so on and so on.

Exactly. Let's try the same phrase with other company names we have less 
emotional attachment to:

     "Microsoft can do what it likes with THEIR *platform*! if YOU
     _choose_ not to agree with their policies for use on THEIR
     platform, YOU can _choose_ to go elsewhere."

    "Bell Atlantic can do what it likes with THEIR *platform*! if YOU
     _choose_ not to agree with their policies for use on THEIR
     platform, YOU can _choose_ to go elsewhere."

    "Standard Oil can do what it likes with THEIR *platform*! if YOU
    _choose_ not to agree with their policies for use on THEIR
    platform, YOU can _choose_ to go elsewhere."

If the reader is sitting in a room filled with Apple logos, it may feel 
different to read that argument when applied to companies famously 
convicted of antitrust violations.

I agree it's not fair to target Apple with such inquiry, but neither 
should they get a free pass just because we may enjoy their products.

After all, the notion of Apple engaging in anti-competitive behavior is 
not merely theoretical - have we forgotten the ebook antitrust case of 
just a few years ago?:

    Apple’s liability for knowingly conspiring with book publishers
    to raise the prices of ebooks is settled once and for all,” said
    Bill Baer, head of the US Justice Department’s antitrust division.
    Baer called the price-fixing conspiracy “cynical misconduct”.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/07/apple-450-million-settlement-e-book-price-fixing-supreme-court


Your point about Google is well taken, raising a question of its own:

Ethically, what is the difference between a duopoly and a cartel?

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com