
Any day now, Telstra will cuddle up to the federal government seeking to have legislation to force eBay to compensate the phone company for the $630 million it lost on Trading Post. That will be followed by Blockbuster and smaller rental outfits wanting Scott Morrison to go Netflix, Foxtel and Stan for what they did to the local video store. Foxtel – no stranger to getting money in dubious circumstances from this government – will want laws to force Netflix, Stan, iView and SBS On Demand to pay up for “stealing” Foxtel subscribers. (A holding operation pending the Murdoch myrmidons’ preferred course of having the ABC and SBS exterminated or at least sold off.) Old Rupert Murdoch himself is next in line to have the Prime Minister recover from Facebook the $710 million he lost on MySpace. (Anyone remember MySpace?) Four absurd cases – but they are actually less absurd than the government’s current legislation to force Google and Facebook to compensate select advertising media for the fact that Google and Facebook are better at selling ads than they are.
Pascoe: Murdoch and media giants unite to deceive in Google cash grab