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

Damien Sullivan phoenix at ugcs.caltech.edu
Mon Jun 13 22:56:50 UTC 2011


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?

> decided to disallow the use of a product, unauthorized use would
> result in contractual fines, or in banishment. Pharma company could
> say the drug can only be applied to the left hand as per terms of a
> licence you agreed to by buying from them. If you broke this contract
> and applied it to the right hand they could punish you according to
> the terms of the contract.

I'm sure such enforcement details wouldn't have any unfortunately
frictional costs.

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.  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."

-xx- Damien X-) 



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