An article on the ramifications of Google and Apple not allowing Gab in their app stores.

Suggests using spectrum licenses be conditioned on their recipients providing freedoms for customers to use the apps of their choice.

As not a lawyer, I think that sounds difficult to wield against google and apple, but think that various "agreements" forced on Microsoft to stop them from keeping Chrome and Firefox off their system could be reasonably used to make Google and Apple make it much easier for 3rd party app stores to be installed on iOS and Android. For instance, 3rd party app stores could be listed in Google and Apple's app stores.

Why should my phone be limited solely to Google Play? Or why do a person need somewhat leet h4x0r skills to sideload a 3rd party app store like fdroid.

https://www.city-journal.org/html/first-amendment-peril-15401.html

First Amendment in Peril?

The Google/Apple duopoly on the mobile Internet seems unconcerned with free expression.

Aaron M. Renn
August 18, 2017

https://www.inc.com/sonya-mann/cody-wilson-defense-distributed.html

3-D Printing and the Second Amendment: Why a Gun-Tech Startup Is Suing the Government

Cody Wilson is a next-generation gunsmith, and he's not backing down.

By Sonya Mann
Staff reporter, Inc.com@sonyaellenmann

In his own words, Cody Wilson is an "anti-state anarchist." But he's also a disciplined businessman. This contrasting personality is the force behind Ghost Gunner, a Texas gun company and Wilson's latest effort to make DIY gunsmithing feasible. Ghost Gunner's eponymous product is a $1,500 CNC mill that "manufactures mil-spec AR-15 and AR-308 lower receivers to completion," per the company's website. In other words, you can print your own assault rifle. Prospective buyers are encouraged to "manufacture unserialized AR rifles in the comfort and privacy of your home."

Ghost Gunner doesn't dance around its value proposition. Cody Wilson wants to unleash the democratizing force of the internet on gun manufacturing and distribution. Harnessing the home-production technologies brought into vogue by the maker movement has allowed Ghost Gunner to help its customers evade conventional gun-control legislation. Critics call Wilson's work "open-source terrorism," and the label "provocateur" is attached to his name more often than "entrepreneur."

Unsurprisingly, Wilson has been embroiled in legal battles almost from day one. Selling the Ghost Gunner machine is legal, albeit controversial, but Wilson and his lawyers also believe that the First and Second Amendments protect the right to publish gun-manufacturing blueprints. The government disagrees.

In fact, doing so was the entire raison d'être of Wilson's first startup, Defense Distributed, which designed and shared CAD files for printing guns, such as the Liberator pistol. At least until the State Department stepped in, making the argument that Defense Distributed was essentially exporting firearms without following the rules. Wilson says he founded Ghost Gunner to carry on the fight for Defense Distributed. "Literally, the conversation was, 'How do we start another company, a totally different kind of company, that can make the millions of dollars necessary to fight something like this?'" Wilson recalled in a phone call.

Astoundingly, the gambit worked -- Ghost Gunner has generated millions in sales...

See also:

A.E. van Vogt, The Weapons Shops of Isher

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weapon_Shops_of_Isher

Jerry, are you a btc guy?

About Ghost Gunner: do not miss the BATFE FAQs about guns.

More stuff about elder abuse.

(As an aside, people who abuse the elderly are sick, sad individuals whose deaths will be their last, if not only, positive contributions to our society.)

By btc do you mean bitcoin?

Only sort of. I was given a very small amount so it's been interesting to see it climb and flail, and mostly it's been flailing.

My profits are impressive, and I can now comfortably go out to a very nice restaurant with those profits if I can figure out how to sell it without the fees eating it all up, so the profits are only on paper, and it's mainly made clear to me that btc is not ready for prime time and already been thoroughly corrupted.

It's somewhat amusing/depressing to see all these folks get ripped off with their online wallets, their offline wallets, with various attacks and hacks, and then see so many others yell at them and blame them for their lax security and their ignorance on how to really keep their bitcoin safe.

Hey Rad, apologies, but what should I take away from those FAQs?

What if Quentin Tarantino made a King Arthur film?

https://twitter.com/AGhostlerer/status/898976738612453376

An interesting series at Breitbart, "Rebels of Google".

http://www.breitbart.com/tag/rebels-of-google/

Well worth reading, esp when you see tweets and the like mocking James Damore for comparing being a conservative at Google with being gay in the 50s.

Read the series, tell me it's not. Tell me the situation is an environment you would want to work in, or even that you don't already work in.

http://www.breitbart.com/tag/rebels-of-google/