[ILUG] Mother of God!

[Jordi Jané]

Hi,

On 2/14/06, Colm MacCarthaigh <colm at stdlib.net> wrote:

> > I think people are being really hard with Google, while letting some
> > other search engine get away with murder (and I hope that's not
> > literal!).
>
> Google claim do not do evil. That set up expectations, and they've
> breached those expectations in the eyes of many. It's badly tarnished an
> otherwise stellar image.

That is true.

> Hyprocricy always attracts attention, people love pointing it out.
> That's a big part of it, but also when Google sell out Civil Liberties
> it sends a message to people that non-evil corporateism just can't work,
> even Google can't manage it. That's a real heart-breaker for some, and
> to some extent people feel genuinely betrayed by this, or by the
> fucked-up world or whatever. That's another part of it.
>
> The attention is disproportionate though, and the actions of Google's
> competitors are indeed worse.

The fact that somebody is now in prison for the actions of another
internet company is, in my eyes, far worse than the hipocresy that
Google may have committed. I think it is important to put the
situation in context.

> > I agree that Google could have done better, or that an alliance would
> > be a good idea. However, I don't see this as a viable option for 2
> > reasons:
> >
> > - Google is not the first one to get into the chinese market
> > - It's competitor will be only too happy to see Google not getting
> > involved at all
>
> Indeed, and so what? The only way this works is if you consider profit
> more important than human rights.

Please note that the points were making reference to the idea of an
alliance that was mentioned in the previous email. Competition only
stands to gain by Google putting their involvement in china with this
alliance, and it is unlikely that they would support Google in this.
Specially seening the steps that some have already taken into the
pool...

> Even if Google were threatened with commercial annilihation by not
> signing up to the Chinese terms - and that just isn't close to being
> true - it would still be wrong.
>
> On the other hand by building up attractive and innovative services
> unavailable from within the great firewall, Google could - at least in
> some way - contribute to a quicker pace to its eventual decline.

True. However, chinese authorities have shown a very strong resilience
to pressure, either internal or external.


Regards,

Jordi Jané
jordi.jane at gmail.com