From: hal@finney.org
Date: Wed Sep 06 2000 - 10:18:29 MDT
I don't take Paul's critique to be a call for more government programs.
Most of what he (and others in the thread) criticizes IS government.
The DMCA is a government law. The unfair courts are run by government.
Unemployment insurance is a government policy.
The problem is not business, it's government which is not living up to
an idealized image.
Although Paul mostly points at big business as being the root cause,
obviously this is not the case because states that have eliminated big
business have at least as much trouble with corruption and unfairness.
It certainly can benefit from criticism, but the Western pluralistic
society stacks up very favorably against other systems which have been
tried throughout history in terms of providing opportunities and freedom
for everyone.
Let me add a couple of comments specifically about the DMCA and the
current intellectual property disputes.
First, although libertarians differ in their views on IP, there is a
strong current of opinion which opposes the concept. A link was provided
in this thread earlier to an article on the von Mises web site which
made this point. In a true libertarian society there would probably be
few laws about IP due to the difficulty of reaching a consensus.
Second, as John Clark pointed out, in the private law model which many
extropians see as superior to libertarianism (the application of free
markets to the legal system), IP would probably be prohibitively expensive
to enforce and so would not be used much at all.
Third, even in our current world, DMCA is hardly the final word.
The current DeCSS case has only passed through the trial phase. Higher
courts have yet to rule, and a number of constitutional questions have
been raised. Our society has only begun to grapple with these issues.
Round one has gone to the copyright holders, but the battle has only
begun. It is far too early to say what the final outcome will be.
Fourth, even if DMCA withstands court challenges, there is still
legislation to pass. "Big business" is hardly unanimous on this issue,
and theirs is not the only voice which is heard. A backlash is beginning
among business interests, allied with consumer groups. I pointed to
an article last week about businesses supporting Napster. Here is
a similar dispute, regarding rules for home taping of digital video:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2623119,00.html. The cable
and video equipment companies are fighting the copyright interests.
So in an idealized free-market world, it is unlikely that measures like
DMCA would even exist. And in our complex, pluralistic world, it remains
to be seen how intellectual property will be handled as we move forward.
Hal
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