# Intellectual property abuse by FAANG Large organizations will also often try to draw more money out of people and abuse or misuse [intellectual property](legal-ip.md) rights beyond any [just](morality-justice.md) or sensible measure: Government - USA - [2021-09 The FBI has made completely false allegations about safe deposit box holders to take their assets](https://web.archive.org/web/20210919234653/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-09-19/fbi-seizure-cash-beverly-hills-vault-spawns-epic-court-battle), [they haven't explained themselves](https://web.archive.org/web/20220726192847/https://reason.com/2022/07/26/what-is-the-fbi-hiding-about-its-raid-on-innocent-americans-safe-deposit-boxes/), and [this is a general issue with civil forfeiture](https://web.archive.org/web/20210901171806/https://ij.org/press-release/highway-robbery-in-reno-nevada-cops-use-civil-forfeiture-to-steal-a-veterans-life-savings/). Government - Europe - [2015-05 The EU suppressed a 300-page study that indicates that piracy doesn't harm intellectual property sales](https://web.archive.org/web/20170921220620/https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-suppressed-a-300-page-study-that-found-piracy-do-1818629537). - [2023-06 Denmark makes pirating textbooks illegal, but half of students find piracy justifiable because of the cost of the books](https://web.archive.org/web/20230611040340/https://torrentfreak.com/high-prices-make-textbook-piracy-acceptable-to-most-students-230604/). Multiple - [2022-08 Smart TVs are now mostly ad generation machines](https://web.archive.org/web/20220813020752/https://adguard.com/en/blog/smart-tv-ad-blocking.html). - [2022-09 Most online advertising is computers showing ads to other computers, without human involvement](https://web.archive.org/web/20220929152114/https://www.wired.com/story/bots-online-advertising/). - [2022-10 You're not purchasing a copy to own anymore when you "buy" a movie through an online store](https://web.archive.org/web/20221004110604/https://worldofmatthew.com/technology/amazon-itunes-deception/). - [2023-04 Germany ruled that Uberspace is liable for hosting youtube-dl software, which copies YouTube videos](https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-dl-hosting-ban-paves-the-way-to-privatized-censorship-230411/). Facebook/Meta - [2021-07 The media company Damn Interesting lost almost all their Facebook attention once "boosting" was introduced](https://web.archive.org/web/20210712142232/https://www.damninteresting.com/to-h-e-double-hockey-sticks-with-facebook/). - [2022-04 Facebook now mostly displays suggested pages and memes instead of other users' content](https://web.archive.org/web/20220404020334/https://old.reddit.com/r/facebook/comments/tvqddc/fb_feed_is_98_suggested_pages_and_barely_any/). Amazon - [2021-05 Amazon is distorting their prices and punishing sellers for trying to sell their product outside of Amazon](https://web.archive.org/web/20210530130650/https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/amazon-primes-free-shipping-promise). - [2021-05 Amazon is intentionally using sellers' data to boost their sales](https://web.archive.org/web/20210502113606/https://www.politico.eu/article/amazon-seller-data-company-sales/). - [2022-10 Amazon lets scammers flood its top USB drives on its store page with fraudulent storage limits](https://kurtisknodel.com/blog/XaQDp4FqRwea7aw0ylgPog). - [2022-11 Most things on Amazon are now advertisements](https://web.archive.org/web/20230223195657/https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2022/amazon-shopping-ads/). - [2023-11 Amazon used a price-adjusting algorithm to pull $1 billion more out of customers than it should have](https://web.archive.org/web/20231103070901/https://www.pcmag.com/news/ftc-amazon-extracted-extra-1-billion-from-users-via-price-raising-algorithm). Apple - [2021-06 Apple is extorting App Store creators to pay 30% of their earnings to the App Store](https://web.archive.org/web/20210609190342/https://twitter.com/jasminericegirl/status/1402691047940100100). - [2022-10 Apple is quietly converting their TV product to work closely with more ad agencies](https://web.archive.org/web/20221012041525/https://digiday.com/media/apple-is-quietly-pushing-a-tv-ad-product-with-media-agencies/). They're also [converting their model to respect tracking, but also host more ads](https://web.archive.org/web/20221003120623/https://adguard.com/en/blog/apple-tracking-ads-business.html). - [2022-12 Since Apple can't take a commission on Coinbase Wallet, Apple Pay won't accept cryptocurrencies](https://web.archive.org/web/20221201170209/https://twitter.com/coinbasewallet/status/1598354819735031809). Google/Alphabet - [2022-01 Google forced users to abandon a perfectly fine Pixel 3 phone after only 3 years](https://web.archive.org/web/20220125162326/https://www.vice.com/en/article/dypxpx/google-is-forcing-me-to-dump-a-perfectly-good-phone). - [2022-02 Google Maps now forces uses to enable Wi-Fi access to enable navigation](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30167865). - [2022-09 Google has added ads to both its search page and Chrome's new tab page](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33032470). Netflix - [2021-04 A former Netflix executive was convicted of taking bribes from contractors](https://web.archive.org/web/20210430235030/https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-netflix-executive-convicted-receiving-bribes-and-kickbacks-companies-contracting). - [2023-02 Netflix will require users to log into their Wi-Fi network at least once every 31 days](https://web.archive.org/web/20230211173838/https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/01/netflix-password-sharing-crackdown-faq-updates.html). PayPal - [2022-01 A European company had 15k EU frozen in PayPal, and they've engaged in legal attrition to exhaust the company's resources](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29935515). - [2022-09 PayPal froze and seized $1.3 million from a hardware developer](https://web.archive.org/web/20230612101318/https://twitter.com/flipper_zero/status/1567194641610465281). - [2022-11 PayPal charges a fee for keeping money in their account but not using it](https://archive.is/QJSx0). Other - [2022-02 Samsung TVs load their screen with ads and unwanted content](https://web.archive.org/web/20220408151817/https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/i-spent-3000-on-a-samsung-smart-tv-and-all-i-got-were-ads-and-unwanted-content/). - [2022-06 Shopify tries to extort money out of people by burying arcane violations in their terms of service](https://web.archive.org/web/20220629062942/https://twitter.com/mattzollerseitz/status/1541994356521013248). - [2022-08 Walmart lets scammers sell 30 TB hard drives that actually have a few SD cards inside it and dramatically less space](https://web.archive.org/web/20220830130200/https://www.vice.com/en/article/akek8e/walmart-30tb-ssd-hard-drive-scam-sd-cards). - [2022-08 GoDaddy charged this person €150 for failing to respond to an email within 2 hours after his payment was canceled](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32470017). - [2022-12 HP printers intentionally make third-party ink cartridges difficult or impossible to use](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33936862). - [2022-12 Stripe's pricing model appears to be simple, but it uses 20 other products that make the pricing system arcane and likely pricier than it may appear](https://web.archive.org/web/20221205105045/https://github.com/getlago/lago/wiki/Stripe%27s-real-pricing:-a-primer). - [2023-01 Twilio tends to perform toll-fraud, then hide behind their terms of service if customers complain](https://archive.is/20230105203837/https://billychasen.medium.com/twilios-toll-fraud-problem-28b3aef39243). ## Machine learning misuse - [2023-05 Some wrestlers in India were detained by Delhi police, but their photos were adapted by AI to appear like they were smiling](https://web.archive.org/web/20230529115146/https://www.altnews.in/wrestlers-detained-in-delhi-ai-image-of-smiling-vinesh-sangeeta-phogat-viral/).