DeCSS, crypto, law, and economics

Eric Rescorla ekr at rtfm.com
Wed Jan 8 11:17:41 EST 2003


"Karsten M. Self" <kmself at ix.netcom.com> writes:
> on Tue, Jan 07, 2003 at 04:10:27PM -0800, Eric Rescorla (ekr at rtfm.com) wrote:
> >         However, if he can price discriminate, he can sell two copies,
> >         one at 3 and one at 6. This makes it profitable for him to
> >         produce the book.
> 
> ...and the usual mechanism is to produce various versions of the book:
> 
>   - A premium hardcover.
>   - A "trade paperback".
>   - A pulp paperback.
>   - A premeium, leather-bound, acid-free archival quality, hand-signed,
>     and specially illustrated, collectors edition.
Well, that's certainly one option. However, there are certainly
other examples, such as senior citizens discounts. 

> Where I see a fundamental conflict on the two classic cypherpunk issues
> of free access to data, but protection of privacy, is this:
> 
>   - Much of the fair use / DRM industry activity seeks to limit
>     access to data which is inherently public.
> 
>   - Much of the privacy debate (now wrapped in the mantel of national
>     security, though marketing data still plays a major role) seeks to
>     make public data which is inherently private, anonymous, or both.
> 
> I see the traditional cypherpunks line in both cases as being more
> closely aligned with "natural state" -- how things would be without
> major intervention -- and thus more sympathetic.

I think part of the point here is that legal measures to enforce price
discrimination might well be Pareto-dominant in some cases. When
there is a conflict between liberty and Pareto dominance, economists
get a headache. [1]

-Ekr

[1] Obligatory reference. Amartya Sen "On the impossibility of the 
Paretial liberal".

-- 
[Eric Rescorla                                   ekr at rtfm.com]
                http://www.rtfm.com/

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