CL wrote:
> Jim Breen wrote:
>
>>Good trade practices legislation combined with a properly funded
>>and staff watchdog organization does wonders. It's not fashion;
>>just a standard component of a well-run community.
>
> There is a basic problem in that neither good legislation nor effective
> watchdog exists.  This has led to the basic law of the greediest
> becoming the law of the land.  Most of the kind of "enforcement" you
> speak of is controlled by law offices in Hollywood, Nashville, and New
> York and the so-called "watchdogs" are actually only industry lapdogs.
> There is no independent investigator answerable to The People in this
> mix.  

There can be if you get the pollies to legislate for one. We've had one
for about 35 years, and it gets better teeth as time goes on. See:
http://tinyurl.com/rex2l  for our Competition and Consumer Commission.
It's very active, e.g. it's currently prosecuting one of our
richest people for (allegedly) telling them porkies under oath about
a cartel, which was subsequently admitted.

> Which is why you have things like Region Codes on DVDs and
> laser-cut numbering on book spines.  They contribute nothing to the
> product, only to the bottom line of the greedheads running publishing,
> media, and trademarking.

Nah. Region Codes on DVDs are the opposite - they're anti-competitive.

> But, don't mind me.  Media attorneys and trademark lawyers are on my
> list of People Who Will Die When the Revolution Comes, just after
> Business School Grads and before Marketing Executives.

Since I'm a "Business School Grad" I'd better lie low.

-- 
Jim Breen        http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/
Clayton School of Information Technology,
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
ジム・ブリーン@モナシュ大学