From: Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>
Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 03:31:07 +0800
To: "Michael Sims" <jellicle@inch.com>
Subject: "Corporations selling your ass down the road for a dollar"
In-Reply-To: <v03007800b10647a828e3@[168.161.105.216]>
Message-ID: <v03007807b106593348bc@[168.161.105.216]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 13:56 -0400 2/10/98, Michael Sims wrote:
>I am aghast.  Why not just pull some "facts" from the National
>Enquirer or another equally reputable source?
>
>I would ask Declan how the hearings went but I suspect there'll be a
>Netly piece involved.

Yep, I'll probably write about this. There are three, maybe four, other
Net-related hearings today, which I won't be able to go to, unfortunately.

>None of this is news to Declan of course.  I just get disappointed
>when I see industry mouthpiece after industry mouthpiece without a
>single goal in mind except maximum profit.  Libertarianism in
>action - corporations sell your ass down the road for a dollar and
>some stock options.

I'm sure Michael was upset and not typing clearly. He knows as well as
anyone that libertarians are not pro-business; they're pro-individual
rights. Libertarians spend quite a bit of time complaining about the
Republican habit of funding corporate subsidies.

The pursuit of profit in the free market is not to be discouraged --
without it, we wouldn't have the Internet we have today. Rather, we should
be suspicious of the intersection between the government and the market in
Congress and in federal agencies. I've written elsewhere about the dangers
of industry sellouts on civil liberties -- sellouts and compromises which
are of course opposed by libertarians.

The libertarian Cato Institute opposes the McCain bill at issue in this
hearing.

-Declan