Comments on: Judge says “no fundamental right to use Facebook,” tosses antitrust case

By: Derrick Harris

Derrick Harris — Sat, 01 Dec 2012 02:17:36 +0000

For what it’s worth, being a monopoly isn’t illegal. Anticompetitive behavior is.

By: Mike Siegel

Mike Siegel — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 23:01:56 +0000

You could always get solar power or other ways of making power, no? You’re right – the definition of a monopoly is strict – being the “sole” provider of a service or commodity. The definition when used in the courts seems to be a bit more loose though. For instance, Microsoft was considered a monopoly in 1999 but it never had 100% market share of Operating Systems.

I’m a big Facebook fan and don’t necessarily believe this judgement should have been against them but would agree that, with the network effect of 1 billion monthly users, their service is unrivaled and monopolistic. Not sure what you do about that though.

By: Jay Fraser

Jay Fraser — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 17:44:06 +0000

Facebook isnt a monoply. It may be the most popular social networking site and the one most of your family and friends use….but that doesnt make it a monopoly. The people you know can always set up accounts on other sites such as linked in and myspace and still connect with you online. You can also use email.

The electrical company is a monoply. If I need electricity in my home I only have one option. Facebook isnt the only option you have to interact with people online.

By: Wes Morgan

Wes Morgan — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:48:53 +0000

If there is no fundamental right to use Facebook, then Facebook should be required to open up their data and protocols to third party services. Facebook is a de facto standard and has a monopoly on social networking. Therefore if I want to interact with my friends and family online, I need to use it. But if I don’t like some aspect of their service or don’t agree to their terms, then I’m stuck. This is yet another situation where the large company gets to have their cake (a monopoly) and eat it too (no requirement for openness) while leaving the regular people out in the cold.

The idea that “if I don’t like it, I can just go use some other service” doesn’t work when the data that people are sharing are all locked up in the system I don’t like.

By: Lucian Armasu

Lucian Armasu — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 02:47:32 +0000

This means Google won’t have to fear anti-trust either. If there’s no “fundamental right” to use Facebook, something that is so ingrained in people’s relationships with other people right now, which makes it so hard to leave it, then it’s definitely not a fundamental right to use a search engine like Google, which is used completely objectively based on a higher relevancy in results than other competitors.