The tech industry needs to get over this underdog mentality. It dwarfs industries that people regularly claim somehow own the government (e.g. media industry).
If tech companies thought it was in their best interest, they could bury the DOJ in litigation for years and barely feel it in the pocket book. It happens all the time when it comes to other industries that have more balls.
Agreed. I'm always fascinated by how different industries punch above or below their weight in government.
The movie industry seems to more or less own half of Congress, and appears to be able to get industry-specific legislation created nearly at will. Yet total US movie industry revenue is in the neighborhood of $85 billion, which is about half of Apple all by itself, not even counting any of the many other valuable tech companies out there.
Calculate "total revenues"/"added value to society". The bigger this number, the more likely that the industry is heavily involved with the government.
If tech companies thought it was in their best interest, they could bury the DOJ in litigation for years and barely feel it in the pocket book. It happens all the time when it comes to other industries that have more balls.