4 ms·
1) Technical advantages are welcomed, just not legislative. 2) Arguing from the perspective of the Cato institute, who are you to place restrictions on the phon
by num1 16y ago
1) Technical advantages are welcomed, just not legislative.
2) Arguing from the perspective of the Cato institute, who are you to place restrictions on the phones carriers sell? The root issue is whether providers have a monopoly or not. But keeping a distinguishing feature just as phones to yourself is just good business.
3) Completely agreed.
This paper (circa 2004) was written from the perspective that internet service is not a monopoly. In this situation the answer is clear; (to a libertarian) government has no business dictating how we should do business.
A large debate within libertarian circles is what to do when monopolies happen. The reflexive answer is no government interference allowed no matter what, the market will figure it out. Obviously in certain situations that doesn't work too well, as far as I know it's still an open question.
- wtallis 16y agoWould you count patent protections as technical or legislative? Patents are supposed to be used only to encourage technological progress, but all too often they screw up the competitive landscape on an entire market in ways that are obviously unfair. If we could reform our patent system to get rid of software patents and raise the bar for physical inventions, then it might be okay to say that technical advantages [protected by patents] are fair.
- Symmetry 16y agoThis is sort of a divisive issue for Libertarians. On the one hand, patents extend the reach of Capitalism into new places, which some libertarians who are reflexively pro-Capitalism like. On the other hand, patents are government restrictions on what you can do with your property, so more consistent (imho) Libertarians tend to be against them.
- num1 16y agoI would personally list patent protections as legislative. There was an article posted to HN recently about patents and what I took away was that they do little to protect someone who isn't a large corporation. I believe this is related to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2034262 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2034262 , patents (in any form not just software but also physical) are just another way to prevent a free market from forming. And libertarianism is based on a firm belief in the free market.
- shrikant 16y agoIMO, the presence of (3) from that list will go a long, LONG way in eliminating (1) and (2). Given an easy way for competitors to enter the market, carrier lock-in wrt devices and features will decrease dramatically. Citation: See the UK and (to an extent) Indian telecom markets.