Google threaten to shut down search in Australia if digital news code goes ahead
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Are they evil? Or just amoral?
In any case, humans are intrinsically moral — we're either moral or immoral or some mixture. A group of humans working together do not suddenly become amoral. Claims that the law obliges a group of people to act in an evil way if they wish to do this that and the other are false, but even if they were true, it does not absolve the people who choose to act in an evil way; you can obey the law and therefore act in an evil way.
Google is a moral company, which does evil.
I guess I'm just a little simplistic and old fashioned. Where I come from, doing evil makes you evil.
One infamous example is Ford deciding not to fix the exploding gas tanks in Pintos because they estimated the cost of paying out lawsuits and settlements would be less than the cost of recalling and repairing their automobiles. Choosing when to do evil and how much evil to do is SOP for any corporation big enough to afford the risk.
In other words, lack of motivation.
What I do disagree with is the Australian approach.
For instance, privacy is ignored. If I understand correctly, privacy issues are not addresses in any way, shape or form and would remain as-is under their proposal.
So what we're left with looks more like a good old-fashioned, heavy handed, targeted, mafia style shakedown of a foreign company that would hand Rupert Murdock a slice of Google profits without him having to compete for it.
This is not free trade or free enterprise and just begs for similar protectionist retaliation against Australian interests. Fair enough if they never plan to conduct commerce with foreign entities. Otherwise, they are just shooting themselves in the foot in the long run.