The US Justice Department’s Apple antitrust lawsuit may be imminent. - The Verge
2 Likes
This is the kind of “lawyer behavior” that pi$$e$ me off, because DOJ regularly makes no distinction between system security and anti-trust behavior.
If Apple is blocking this access to hardware/software while using these system calls in its own software, then you DO HAVE an anti-trust claim just like they did against Microsoft for it’s YEARS of blocking access to hidden system calls that it took advantage of. However, if this is just more of the Epic style complaint of “we should have access to everything” that Apple has developed, then TOUGH.
We’ll see once the dust settles next week.
5 Likes
I suspect this is “lawfare” to create leverage to move Apple on LEO back doors into its devices.
4 Likes
As I understand it, the justice department is mimicking the EU antitrust action.
2 Likes
Very possible, but still I just don’t like DOJ nor EU DMA heavy-handedness in business regulation. Guess that comes from my oil & gas background and EPA/OSHA/other regulatory everywhere.
Please everyone, don’t get me wrong and business does need regulatory oversight, but it needs to be balanced with a view towards rectifying damage to the end consumer, not tit-for-tat between big corporate entities.
3 Likes
I could tell you stories about regulators taking actions, withholding permits, instituting investigations not because there was a legal basis for doing so, but solely because the time, expense, delay and market uncertainty created by their actions leave publicly traded companies with the choice of yielding to social policy demands by the regulator or expend tens of millions in cost and risk billions in shareholder value for the chance to possibly prevail years in the future.
5 Likes
Been there, done that, and for sure didn’t get the t-shirt…
2 Likes
The war is on…(why the h$ll did Apple have to use “magical experience” in its press release)…
4 Likes
A company saying they’ll vigoursly defend the law suit is music to my ears. 
I agree in large part with the sentiment that the government can often overreach, but as I have put three lovely children through college defending those actions, I guess I should not complain too much.
4 Likes
Part of the DOJ press briefing is in the summary from The Verge, and all I can say is TOUGH $HIT…
Maybe the answer is as simple as “If you don’t like the way Apple operates just buy any of hundreds of Android phones.” Does this mean if I like a Tesla but it doesn’t support CarPlay or Android Auto I get to make Tesla support those; same goes for GMC now that they won’t support those either?
4 Likes
Great point!
2 Likes
Apple controls 55% of the smartphone market in the US. I would guess that the apple store apps actually account for a higher percentage of dedicated apps sold through a manufacturer’s app store. Still, not quite the 90% of the market that had been controlled by the Bell System before it was broken up but still enough control to be a market controlling force subject to anti trust laws.
3 Likes
This will be the point where Apple’s resources outlast even Uncle Sam…wish I could get 1% of the fees that will be 
up in this fiasco…I’d finally be a multi-millionaire…
I love The Verge’s follow up headline"
“The Department of Justice claims Apple has maintained an illegal monopoly over the smartphone market by locking in customers and making experiences worse for rival products.”
Don’t Toyota, GM, Ford, Honda, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, MacDonalds, Chik-Fil-A, on and on, do this every day?
4 Likes
I would agree with you, but I think the EU lawsuit that is basically attacking the same thing is going to force Apple to change anyway. They can fight it from two sides, or they can Apple their way around it by coming up with some other solution, which is what I think they’ll actually do.
Either way, I’ll be happy if I can get some of my Android and iPad apps to play nicer with each other.
2 Likes
When I was a law clerk I kept a corner of my office for the papers filed in a single antitrust case. All that, and our chambers did not handle discovery disputes or other non-dispositive issues. Almost every large firm in New Orleans would file papers weekly. 1% indeed. I think it depends on the Judge whether Apple can outlast the justice department. If Timmy even smells the approach of trial, he’ll make a deal. I assume Apple will not go all Alliana Habba on the govt., the judge or the staff.
1 Like
Another Verge article published about 10 minutes ago:
1 Like
While I don’t necessarily agree with the lawsuit (I’m more of a “less government intrustion” kind of guy), it’s kind of like drunk driving to me. Philosophically I don’t agree with drunk driving laws–mainly because a crime hasn’t actually been committed yet. However, once someone injures or kills someone, they don’t get to use impairment as a limiting factor on the charges and sentence. So there is no DUI, just attempted murder or murder in the second degree.
That said, I don’t exactly have a lot of sympathy for drunk drivers. It’s like you guys/gals put yourselves in this situation, now deal with it. Apple is like the drunk driver in this illustration. I don’t think you deserve to be here, but I’m not exactly cryin’ for ya.
2 Likes
Yeah if it wasn’t so blatantly structured as tactics to appeal to blue state voters I’d be more behind this, but at least on first read it looks more like a " we are defending you from the big bad Apple" though against what isn’t really clear, versus addressing meaningful change eg. force apple to open up the APIs for I message versus forcing them to make it more compatible with other ecosystems
2 Likes
That is the feel (and look from a lawyer’s perspective) of the DOJ “dramatic” announcement. The Apple fanboy press predicts a big 0 for DOJ:
I don’t think DUI is a good analogy, because the DOJ pleadings are a tour de force of anti-capitalism pablum. Seriously, there are only two smartphone platforms, and DOJ is leveling the playing field by demanding one make it easier for the other to connect to and use their services and infrastructure? It Is pure pandering to the “green bubble” crowd that they perceive as blue votes.
I predict two years from now it “settles” by deeper adoption of RCS and getting rid of the green bubbles (seriously) to stop “shaming” Android users…
2 Likes
Yeah I totally agree. My point was more I don’t feel bad for them even though I don’t think the lawsuit is exactly just. They kind of brought a lot of this upon themselves from a rhetorical perspective–with their smug answers to people over the years. Dialectically, the truth is virtually all on Apple’s side.