Things like Google SafetyNet have been equally obvious corporate power grabs, but barely got negative coverage from the tech press,

IMO, this might be b/c as tech spread into normal society, to everyday ppl, tech literacy has declined. On avg I mean, ofc there are still lots of smart, aware ppl. More than ever in raw numbers. But as a percentage, it's less. Without a critical mass of people who understand the issues and care enough about them, big tech co abuses fly under the radar.

I kinda think that if MS tried Palladium today, they could succeed. Their power grab just came too early.

MS also tried to replace the open web with a MS proprietary technology. That also died b/c ppl pushed back. Today? They'd prob succeed if they said it was for everybody's safety. "Oh... it's for my safety. I guess that's ok then."