Richard Epstein on the DMCA?

by on March 23, 2007

Richard Epstein in How Progressives Re-wrote the Constitution, page 15:

[The classical liberal legal regime protects] the freedom to engage in market competition—to make offers to business with others. The private voluntary contracts that may result are postiive-sum games for the parties to them, and whatever harm ordinary contracts of sale and hire wreak on competitors (and it is a real harm, no doubt) is more than offset by the gains to the parties and to consumers. We are all systematically better off, therefore, in a regime in which all can enter and exit markets at will than in a social situation in which one person, armed with the monopoly power of government, can license or proscribe the actions of others.

I wonder how he would apply this analysis to the market for iTunes-compatible music players.

Comments on this entry are closed.

Previous post:

Next post: