[ExI] Forensic evidence emerges that European e.coli superbug was bioengineered to produce human fatalities

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

Am I getting close to my daily post quota?

I'll shut up until tomorrow just in case.

On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 6:56 PM, Damien Sullivan
<phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 13, 2011 at 06:32:53PM -0400, Rafal Smigrodzki wrote:
>
>> ### In the ideal libertarian world, that is the Golden Oecumene,
>> absolutely everything, including thoughts and memories, would be
>> subject to well-enforced property laws. If an inventor or his assigns
>
> Such a glorious world of freedom you paint!  Who needs Big Brother and
> thoughtcrime, when big business can enforce EULAs against your very
> thoughts?

### Yeah, why not? Maybe people would be less willing to buy Windows?

---------------

>
> Hmm, I'd pay more for a drug I could use at my discretion, rather than
> one I had to verify use of with a corporate bureaucracy.

### If the use-at-your-discretion drug was crap (because millions of
non-experts destroyed its efficacy by profligate use), would you sing
the same tune?

---------------

 How altruistic
> of the company to unprofitably undertake such restrictions, vs. a
> competitor that sold drugs outright and didn't have to pay the costs of
> an enforcer staff.  True, in the very long run the enforcement approach
> might pay off, as competing drugs lose their effectiveness, but that's a
> huge capital cost to carry.  Human businesses tend not to jump at "and
> we'll start making profits 30 years from now."

### If the legal system works, and you get full restitution, honesty
pays for itself and crime doesn't. The direct-sale competitor would
soon find himself unable to sell anything, because his drug would stop
working.

For a more mundane example, look at the case of lasik surgery. The
company that developed the technology commercially uses a tracking
system built into the machines they make - they charge a fee for every
use, rather than simply selling the machines outright. The enforcement
of property rights is built into the hardware of the machine, and as
long as encryption is not broken, their rights are secure, at the
trivial cost of a few lines of code in their program.

Rafal