From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Tue Aug 27 2002 - 20:09:52 MDT
-->Kevin Bluck
> >The "libertarian" view is that you don't jam someone else's broadcast
> >because you thereby have injured them. Technical standards will grow out
> >of companies co-operating for thier mutual benefit.
>
> Yes, companies voluntarily cooperate for mutual benefit all the time.
>
> Be that as it may, who gave that "someone else" the right to broadcast on
> Channel 3 (or whichever) in the first place? Is a transient who
> squats in a
> public park "injured" when he is escorted off by the police? Is he
> "injured" when another transient decides he is hogging the best bench and
> drives him away? What exactly is the libertarian view on squatting in
> public places? Anybody can occupy any public property they wish for any
> purpose they desire as long as they were there first?
A good view (not sure if it's the libertarian view anymore, with or without
definition-shifting quotes) is that there shouldn't be any public places.
Everything should be privately held; then you wouldn't have these issues, or
indeed any need to be a busybody and worry about how other people are
managing their lives and property.
> Well, the airwaves are public property just like Central Park. Your
> libertarian reasoning treats them as *private* property, which they are
> not. Now, perhaps you think they *should* be private property. That, of
> course, is a completely different question than whether the FCC acted
> appropriately to penalize O&A's home station for their on-air conduct.
If you start talking about what color you want to paint your interstellar
human conveyance device in this forum, be prepared to give out specs and
justification in the grounding of said conveyance...I don't see that it's
any different for government institutions as the topic of discussion.
Doesn't it seem logical and useful to question [outrageous construct X] when
people start talking about [small fiddling detail atop outrageous construct
X].
Anyhow.
Reason
http://www.exratio.com
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