I of course agree with Tim. Corporations are merely voluntary collections of individuals. As for civil rights laws: in my dark moments, I want to add a button to my web page: "Only click here if you are (or are not) Irish." Or "No African Americans allowed." Or "Nobody over 60 years old permitted." I wonder, would I be in violation of Title 7? -Declan At 08:29 -0700 7/1/97, Tim May wrote:
Unfortunately, there is a growing distinction being made between "voluntary transactions" of _people_ and of _corporations_.
(The most stunning example of this, as Declan of course knows, being the "Title 7" stuff in the Civil Rights Act, which takes away a person's right to associtate with persons with whom he wishes to associate--he can't choose to hire only Chinese, or no cripples, or only Mormons, and so on.)
And in the crypto debate, the term "market" has mostly been interpreted by people to mean: Netscape, Microsoft, PGP, RSADSI, C2net, Verisign, etc.
I don't believe corporations have any more rights--or any more restrictions--than individuals do. So in this sense I agree with Declan's point. But my view is in a minority.
Thus, care is warranted when discussing "market solutions."