Re: LEDE
"Hardware manufacturers. They have a mutual interest in cooperating."
Not necessarily. If a market is mature or has significant government involvement, like plugs with their legally-binding safety standards, then yes, the manufacturers find it's best to come to terms.
BUT if a market is competitive, like it is in the SoC markets, then they DON'T want to cooperate because they're instead out to conquer. THEY want to become the standard-bearer instead of The Enemy. And governments usually don't set a standard until the smoke has cleared for fear of being chided for doing it wrong and wasting taxpayer money and possibly getting voted out.
"Somewhere along the line we seem to have missed out ensuring that public interest is looked after."
Of course not. The first priority of any business is to make money. Otherwise, it has no real reason for existing. All else is secondary, and part of the aim is to manipulate governments to maintain the status quo. If a government moves to mandate businesses cater to citizens first, you move to change the government to not make it so anymore.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
