On Wed, 7 Oct 2020 08:58:18 +0200 Antonio Iacono <antiac@gmail.com> wrote:
E' impressionante il numero delle società acquisite:
No, QUESTO è impressionante:
My startup, based in the UK, developed a system that allowed a user to bookmark a video – any video, on any site – for later watching on any device the user owned (hiding all technical complexities such as format transcoding, synchronizing, etc.), allowing her to manage her playlists, share with a limited number of friends with a legal friendly “lending” mode, etc.
The smartphone app allowed for synchronization of the contents for offline viewing (there was not enough bandwidth for streaming and it was costly; there was no coverage in subways, trains or airplanes): when you arrived home/office, the app would recognize the wifi and start synchronizing all the videos to your device.
We even had a client for the WII so you could watch your playlists on TV (and on play stations as well).
We published the app on the store and downloads were ramping up very satisfactorily, and just by word of mouth.
There was a clear need of a service that allowed users to aggregate videos from one of the many possible sources(*) and watch them on any device, anywhere, online/offline.
(*) there was life beyond youtube, at the time.
Then our app was taken down from the store. And that happened time and again with motivations that seemed futile to me.
The app was clearly legit.
One day my CTO received a call which basically said that it was pointless for us to insist with publishing the app because they were supporting Youtube and didn’t want a competing app.
We discussed with the lawyers and for a while we tried to get a written statement to possibly start a legal action, but then – absent any proof of the facts above – I had no choice but to shut down the company.
I told my story to some friends and learned other similar stories; in one case I was told they were asked some million euros in order to let the app in the store.
I have no proofs, so I have been very careful to avoid references to a specific company.
But that’s the kind of power that gatekeepers have and the reason why we need ex ante regulation to protect device neutrality. And the report recognizes it.
Tratto da https://blog.quintarelli.it/2020/10/investigation-of-competition-digital-mar... Giacomo