Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Amazon's Cluelessness

Author:Joshua Allen
Posted:9/5/2000; 7:52:13 PM
Topic:Amazon's Cluelessness
Msg #:20892 (In response to 20857)
Prev/Next:20891 / 20893

Interesting post "Another take on IP". Brings up a major gripe of mine. Gore takes credit for creating the Internet, Clinton crows about how the white house is using the net, but it seems we are missing some huge opportunities to transform democracy. Democracy in its current byzantine model cannot keep up with the corporatization of the people's will. I doubt that democracy would look the same today if Henry, Calhoun, and Clay were designing with the Internet available.

The whole concept of "theft" is even more urgent for the government than for music/software/media companies. Today it is possible for companies to make exchanges and barter using public key encryption in such a way that the exchanges could never be tracked by the IRS. Money exchange between individuals in a non-trackable system means that the IRS could have no recourse to determine how much money anyone makes. So the tax system goes, and government with it. Of course it's extreme, but my point is that society will have to solve the issues of theft in a bit-pushing system, and we will solve these issues. But our laws and legal structures really do need to change and I wish the government would just do it!

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