DeCSS, crypto, law, and economics

[Eric Rescorla]

"John S. Denker" <jsd at monmouth.com> writes:
> Eric Rescorla wrote:
> 
> > When there is a conflict between liberty and Pareto
> 
>  > dominance, economists get a headache.
> 
> Really?  Maybe some of them do, but I suspect most of
> them wouldn't formulate it as a conflict at all;  they
> would just ask "how much do you want to pay for your
> liberty?"
I was thinking in particular of Sen's "Impossibility of
the Paretian liberal". 

> Example:  Suppose you have the choice of either carpooling
> to work or taking your own car, solo.  The latter gives
> you more liberty as to when you drive home.  But it comes
> at a cost.
That's not the context in which I mean liberty. Rather, I'm
talking about global restrictions. Consider the following
situation as described by Steven Landsburg
(http://slate.msn.com/id/46376/)

        Here's a stylized example: Suppose some people (call
        them the "prudes") cherish their freedom of religion, but not
        half so much as they would cherish a general ban on
        pornography. Others (call them the "lewds") cherish their
        right to read Lady Chatterley's Lover but not half so much as
        they would cherish a general ban on religion. Then if you
        outlawed both pornography and religion, you'd make everyone
        happier, while simultaneously making everyone less free.

-Ekr


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

---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Cryptography Mailing List
Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo at wasabisystems.com