The History of IBM's Breakup

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IBM was in antitrust hell for 12 years from 1969 to 1981. The entire sector looked at what was happening to IBM and they said, whatever it was that caused IBM to land in this awful position, we're not going to do it. When a couple of Stanford grad students named Larry and Sergey started a company called Google, Microsoft did not do to them what they did to Netscape. And so I think that breakups and attempted breakups are absolutely worth every penny we spend on them.

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What is interoperability? What counts as "unauthorized" access to computers or parts of computers? If the rendered design of a web page is copyrighted, then does blocking ads on that page count as copyright infringement by creating a derivative product? Does Facebook really want what's best for its users? Is Google evil? Could blockchain-based solutions provide much-needed privacy or interoperability? Why doesn't the U.S. government (for example) fight harder to prevent vendor lock-in when buying goods and services? Which tech companies, if any, should be broken up?

Cory Doctorow (craphound.com) is a science fiction author, activist, and journalist. He is the author of many books, most recently Radicalized and Walkaway, science fiction for adults; Chokepoint Capitalism, nonfiction about monopoly and creative labor markets; In Real Life, a graphic novel; and the picture book Poesy the Monster Slayer. His latest novel is Attack Surface, a standalone adult sequel to Little Brother. In 2020, he was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

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