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The Unintended Consequences of Internet Regulation

• bediger4000 4y ago
  The unintended consequences? > Those benefits can be difficult to achieve and difficult to measure, while this paper finds that such regulations frequently have a negative impact on investment in covered internet companies, with declines ranging from 15% to 73%. A negative impact on investment in internet companies. I usually like Masnick's work, but this is laughable. Who does this harm - two groups. 1. Venture Capitalists and 2. People doing startups. I think we can agree that Venture Capitalists not getting even more absurd returns on their money is an acceptable risk. It's a little harder to agree that not having as many startups is acceptable. Still, it's merely a risk that not as many startups would get funded, not a guarantee. And even if so, should we value startups that much, we can do other things to help people create startups. Maybe universal health care, to allow people to break free from corporate employment. Changing laws about non-competes and that weird "your employer owns everything you create, even on your own time" law.