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Re:Google Decides to Monetize Maps by CamperBob2 on Thursday April 18, 2019 @03:28PM (#19694044)
"Authoritarian" is when you're the one pointing guns at people (and companies) in order to make them do what you say is best.
Re:Google Decides to Monetize Maps by coldtea on Friday April 19, 2019 @04:09AM (#19697868)
Not really. A society can democratically decide to not have companies do this or that.

Except if you think e.g. forbidding them from using child labor or from not hiring women/blacks etc. are authoritarian too, then you already agree that a society can impose some laws (onto companies), and them to not be authoritarian.

If you agree to the above, then now the main difference is that you think the above examples are "fair" and "ok", whereas the other proposal is not. But that's a matter of opinion, not some objective truth.

Re:Google Decides to Monetize Maps by CamperBob2 on Friday April 19, 2019 @01:52PM (#19701512)
A society can democratically decide to not have companies do this or that.

The only power they (we) have to enforce such policies is to stick a gun in someone's back. It's true that some matters call for the initiation of violence to maintain a greater societal good. You've cited some worthwhile examples but this isn't one of them.

If you agree to the above, then now the main difference is that you think the above examples are "fair" and "ok", whereas the other proposal is not. But that's a matter of opinion, not some objective truth.

Our Constitution lies somewhere in the middle between opinion and objective truth. It carries more weight than the former (those guns again) and less than the latter. It arguably doesn't provide the legal tools needed to force Internet search engines and map providers to work on a nonprofit basis.

There are other countries whose founding documents don't include similar constraints. Fortunately, nobody will shoot you for trying to leave this one.