That’s Judge James Donato, continuing to be skeptical, addressing Doug Bernheim, the Epic economist.
Bernheim agrees with the judge that Google still monopolizes the Android app market and payments market; that the facts haven’t materially changed on the ground.
Bernheim says he “would love to have all” of the anti-Google monopoly recommendations he originally argued for, but that he’s just analyzing what’s in front of him, and that Judge Donato’s existing injunction simply doesn’t last long enough at just three years rather than six.
“When that ends, developers are going to be very dependent on off-Google Play distribution,” he says. “To the extent those frictions are still in place, that will be a problem at that point in time [...] they’ll be reliant on a process that has already been shown not to work well.”
He brings up the example of how Amazon’s Appstore never got traction because users had to click through too many Google barriers.
“You called catalog access THE critical remedy to counter the network effects and the pattern of dominance,” says Donato, suggesting that Bernheim is attempting to mislead by suggesting the settlement would be viable without forcing Google to offer up its catalog of apps to rival app stores.
“I questioned you about the need for the duration period, and you said it was such a critical remedy you advocated for a period twice as long,” says Donato.
He appears to have been commissioned by Epic to analyze the settlement’s modified injunction vs. Judge Donato’s original injunction. “There are some very important pluses, there are some very important minuses,” says Bernheim.
His “main pluses” include:
Main minuses?
He’s just been sworn in, and he’s prepared slides; Unfortunately, the screen on my side of the room is dead, so I’ve migrated to the other side, apologizing to several people who graciously moved for me. Bernheim featured prominently during the trial portion of this case.
We’re about to hear the bitter foes-turned-BFFs explain why Judge James Donato should accept their settlement after five-plus years of legal battle. Judge Donato has just entered; Sweeney was on his phone but has put it away. Samat was waiting patiently; he’s got an eye-catching thin beaded bracelet on his wrist.
Kathleen Kennedy tells Deadline she’s excited and “interested in exploring using those tools in responsible ways”:
I’m not saying that it impacts every single story you’re going to tell in cinema, but certainly for big tentpole stories where you’re trying to world-build and create images people haven’t seen before, I really believe this technology is going to do that.
The whole interview’s a good read, but she’s wrong that ILM created the first CG shot in a movie with Young Sherlock Holmes. It was groundbreaking, but Tron, The Last Starfighter, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Trek II, Westworld, and even 1958’s Vertigo all had CG earlier.
