RE: GPL & commercial software, the critical distinction (fwd)
Jim Choate wrote:
Lightly? You jest.
No I don't. I can start a business for as little as $15 to register a DBA and I don't need licenses or other sorts of regulatory permissions.
And you would be stupid to expose yourself to full liability. Regulation includes much more than licensing and registration. Try hiring a couple employees, paying freelance individuals, setup office space, get yourself a company car and do your fed income taxes. Lightly regulated my ass. If they enforced every word of every code strongly and literally it would be nearly impossible to conduct business.
No we shouldn't. The fact that monopolies can exist in this lightly regulated economy is ample evidence
Bullshit, monopolies exist because of the regulation.
If you seriously think this is a heavily regulated market you should do more research into such places as Nazi Germany, Russia, China, etc.
Bullshit again, there is a *big* difference between a regulated market (mixed capitalist/socialist economy) and a command economy. So because we don't live in Soviet Russia we should all bend over and take it?
Monopolies are monopolies, claiming that they will be less abusive in a regulated market than in a free-market just
Coercive power takes form via regulation. Without it a bad monopoly is a short-lived one.
You are claiming that if we do away with the food regulations that McDonalds will be *more* concerned about their meat being cooked thoroughly then you
Liability, liability, liability. Regulation often promotes bad practice as businesses comply with minimum regulation and nothing more instead of thinking for themselves. What is worse is government often shields companies from liability.
If a market monopolizes there is *NO* competition.
How do you prevent potential competition? Monopoly means both the absence of existing and potential competition and alternatives.
If the market is one that takes a large investment in intellectual or capital materials then there won't be any opportunity to even attempt to start a competitive venture.
A fluid capital market can finance even the largest of ventures if the potential return is there. Different markets have different time schedules, but competition can and will come. Intellectual Property enforcement is an act of government, it is a force monopoly, only just and reasonable IP laws limit it. Notice that, bad laws = bad monopoly, good laws = balanced environment, no laws = no monopoly. The last of which is not necessarily preferable in this case, and is a fundamental difference in laissez-faire Vs anarchy.
Fairness is about the consumer, not the manufacturer.
You have an odd definition of fair. You cannot have fair for the benefit of one at the expense of another.
Contractual with who?
With whomever is a part of the framework.
reputation for punishment instead of life and liberty,
Businesses are neither alive nor do they enjoy liberty. Don't confuse people with systems and objects.
No, do not strip the person from the businesses. A group of people do not lose any of the rights and liberty of a single individual, neither do they gain any. Businesses are people. Commerce is a fundamental right, in order to survive you must be able to create and dispose of that creation. The lack of the *individual's* right to freely and easily pursue any and all business pursuits to any degree is an act of enslavement of the individual to corporate aristocracy and bureaucratic whim. Matt
-- At 12:30 AM 10/1/98 -0700, Matthew James Gering wrote:
Regulation includes much more than licensing and registration. Try hiring a couple employees, paying freelance individuals, setup office space, get yourself a company car and do your fed income taxes. Lightly regulated my ass. If they enforced every word of every code strongly and literally it would be nearly impossible to conduct business.
To the best of my observation, every single small business is operating illegally. The situation differs from Russia only in degree, not in kind --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG ijgrm6mPtp+ITpiypBMGLzXsIs6lHQrzIqUz4YVV 43IJ5kE5GhIslIQSgCTgRQZID2XvL+MfwFf/uPGD8 ----------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ James A. Donald
Said Matthew James Gering,
Bullshit, monopolies exist because of the regulation.
I'm afraid sir, that your ingonorance is showing. Pick up any college (hell, high school) ecomonics textbook. Certain types of businesses are inheritly advantagious to monopolies. The electric company is the classic example- their is no cost effective way for an electric company to supply power to a given area unless it is a monopoly. Certain types of businesses are suited to certain types of competition, and, unregulated, monopolies are exactly what you get. This was exactly the situation that occured at the turn of the century and it happened because regulation was non-existant! Your statement is wonderfully trite but I see no evidence to support it. ___________________________________________________________________________ "DOS/WIN based computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq, Tandy, and millions of others, are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines in use worldwide. Macintosh fans, on the other hand, note that cockroaches are far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form." - New York Times -Kevin "The Cubbie" Elliott <mailto:k-elliott@wiu.edu>
At 2:18 PM -0500 10/1/98, Kevin Elliott wrote:
Said Matthew James Gering,
Bullshit, monopolies exist because of the regulation.
I'm afraid sir, that your ingonorance is showing. Pick up any college (hell, high school) ecomonics textbook. Certain types of businesses are inheritly advantagious to monopolies. The electric company is the classic example- their is no cost effective way for an electric company to supply power to a given area unless it is a monopoly. Certain types of businesses are suited to certain types of competition, and, unregulated, monopolies are exactly what you get. This was exactly the situation that occured at the turn of the century and it happened because regulation was non-existant! Your statement is wonderfully trite but I see no evidence to support it.
I'd suggest you go back to school and think a bit.In most places the "Electric Company" is a goverment sponsored and deligated monopoly. Competition is prohibited by REGULATION. This also occurs with Gas, Water, Telephone, especially Non-commercial, cable, and in some places Garbage disposal. -- petro@playboy.com----for work related issues. I don't speak for Playboy. petro@bounty.org-----for everthing else. They wouldn't like that. They REALLY Economic speech IS political speech. wouldn't like that.
-- At 02:18 PM 10/1/98 -0500, Kevin Elliott wrote:
I'm afraid sir, that your ingonorance is showing. Pick up any college (hell, high school) ecomonics textbook. Certain types of businesses are inheritly advantagious to monopolies. The electric company is the classic example- their is no cost effective way for an electric company to supply power to a given area unless it is a monopoly. Certain types of businesses are suited to certain types of competition, and, unregulated, monopolies are exactly what you get. This was exactly the situation that occured at the turn of the century and it happened because regulation was non-existant!
Bullshit. No monopoly has ever happened except by regulation I have no idea what you are referring to in your reference to the turn of the century. If you are referring to standard oil, you are parroting silly communist propaganda with no basis in reality. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG jeE+LNH/f8RnmYDChWQ48wf3pqRR6WcCMCJYSUXI 45eF2HkK+9DX6z7XPNhbGoHJc96S3SuJ9SBUnw+iJ ----------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the omnipotent state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ James A. Donald
At 2:37 PM -0400 on 10/4/98, James A. Donald wrote:
To the best of my observation, every single small business is operating illegally.
Amen. Literally. That is, when the church ruled our lives, it was impossible not to be sinning for some reason. These days, the state rules our lives, and we're all breaking the law. Most criminologists will tell that the more corrupt the jurisdiction, the harder it is to be in compliance with the law. That way, it's easier for the state's functionaries to shake you down. Ayn Rand has a great quote about this, which I have long forgotten, but my favorite bit of impromptu wisdom on the subject is from Vinnie Moscaritolo, who blurted out one night, on a long climb up Page Mill road, "'If we could just pass a few more laws', we could all be criminals!" Also, Voltaire was famous for saying, in French of course :-), 'death to la infame' (le? I took latin instead, and was bad at it, anyway.). By la infame, "the infamous thing", he meant the church, of course. While it probably sounds a little haughtier than "smash the state", (or, as I am wont say, *surfact* the state ;-)), Voltaire's saying, in the original, might make a nice slogan to, um, resurrect, if someone wants to dust off their college french and do the honors... Odd thing for a man to say who was buried in the floor of a church anyway. It'd be like putting Mr. Young in Arlington, or something. ;-). Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah@philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
participants (5)
-
James A. Donald -
Kevin Elliott -
Matthew James Gering -
Petro -
Robert Hettinga