IP: Freedom, Economics and the Internet

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 10:56:25 -0800
>To: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>From: Bert Shaw <bshaw@catsco.com>
>
>
>The New York Times OpEd today features a piece by Robert Wright about
>freedom and the Internet.  An interesting anology between printing and the
>attempted suppression of books and ecomomic advances and freedom.
>
>             WASHINGTON, DC.  At the end of the 20th century, American
>            foreign policy acquired a new premise: history is on the side of
>           freedom as never before. The basic idea is that economic and
>political
>           liberty -- which always had a fairly close relationship -- are now,
>           suddenly, joined at the hip. What joined them is information
>technology.
>           As President Clinton said in 1998, justifying his policy of 
> economic
>           engagement with China: "In this global information age, when
>economic
>           success is built on ideas, personal freedom is essential to the
>greatness          of any modern nation."
>
>           Or, to put the argument in less gauzy terms: These days, for
>markets to
>           work well, microcomputers and modems must cover the economic
>           landscape. As a side effect, state control of information is
>eroded and
>           citizens are empowered. So governments that want prosperity must
>           sooner or later tolerate political freedom.
>
>           <snip>
>
>Regards,
>
>
>Bert W. Shaw, M.A.
>CATSco, Inc.
>Developers and publishers of HELP-Software(TM)
>1531 Chapala Street, Suite 4, Santa Barbara, CA 93101
>Voice: 805-963-3206  FAX 805-965-7426
>Internet:  www.catsco.com