Re: FCC-type Regulation of Cyberspace

[frantz@netcom.com (Bill Frantz)]

At  7:27 PM 3/14/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote:
>The exceptions [to the general right to publish (bf)] are, first,  
>obscenity and the like. Second, articles and advertisements are regulated  
>in various ways as to the claims that can be made, the promises, the 
>competitive claims, etc. Third, there are moves afoot to limit 
>advertisements of tobacco and cigarettes in various magazines.

Mark Miller and I had a discussion about the restrictions on commercial
speech a few months ago.  I contended that these restrictions (generally
that you can prove your claims) are good for markets because they provide
startup companies (and other newcomers to the market) with a small amount
of positive reputation capital that they would otherwise have to invest to
obtain.

Mark pointed out the superiority of non-governmental reputation agencies.

I mentioned that one bad effect of "truth in commercial speech" was it
resulted in people having a greater tendency to believe politicians, and we
left the discussion there.

In thinking back over the discussion, I would like to eliminate the
restrictions without making markets less free by adding yet more barriers
to market entry.  We certainly need more robust reputation agencies than we
have now.  I just don't know how to encourage their formation.

Regards - Bill

BTW - I am sending a blind copy to Mark so he can maintain anonymity if he
wants to.


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