News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other ... by nine_k on Sunday February 11, 2018 @10:37AM (#16353090)
You most certainly heard about a thing called "law". In short, it's a paper that limits actions of everyone, including the government, to some known safe subset.

Arbitrarily breaking the law, that is, limiting the so-called "rights" of people, is considered bad, that very law prohibits it. You cannot just go and prevent somebody from doing a thing not prohibited by the law, such as carrying an iPhone, because suddenly you realize that you need to grab the iPhone and split it to pieces to make the world as a whole a better place.

Same applies to other properties, like companies. Unless owners of these are breaking the law, you can't grab and split their companies, because you consider it a greater good.

Of course, there were numerous examples when people ignored law and did arbitrary things, because "revolutionary conscience", "divine right of kings", or just plain having a gun as an argument. While merits of these options can be discussed, they all are incompatible with "rule of law", let alone "democracy", that many hood dear and consider the very soil on which the economic prosperity has grown. (We have most of Africa and Central Asia as a control group.)

Re:Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other ... by jimnotgym on Sunday February 11, 2018 @11:12AM (#16353241)
All true, but please allow for the fact that certain kinds of market practices are against the law in certain jurisdictions and some of the companies mentioned have already been found guilty of these.

Also allow that laws may be changed.

Re:Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other ... by nine_k on Sunday February 11, 2018 @11:21AM (#16353279)
Yes, laws may and should eventually change.

The process of changing laws is usually relatively slow, and involves discussing various consequences the change may have. I just wish this process was applied in the case.

Re:Four companies dominate our daily lives unlike any other ... by loup-vaillant on Sunday February 11, 2018 @01:08PM (#16353844)
> Arbitrarily breaking the law

…is a separate notion from fairness. Looks like you've read way too much in my comment.

Incidentally, laws can lawfully be changed.