Shadow regulations: another side effect of economic consolidation

[Winehole23]

The winner-take-all economy has turned virtually every industry into a cartel (four record labels, two cable companies, two phone operating systems, etc) who operate without fear of compe ion regulation, allowing representatives of a few companies to gather in closed-door meetings to cook up operating agreements that end up having the force of law.


For example, the major US ISPs and the major US entertainment companies have agreed on a six-strikes "Copyright Alert" system that could disconnect you and your family from the internet without a trial or a chance of appeal; major US tech companies have agreed to a "hate speech code of conduct" that the EU cooked up without consultation with the people outside of the EU who now live under those rules; major domain name registries have given the MPAA the power to confiscate domain names on their own say-so; and payment processing giants have agreed to cut off people accused of hosting infringing content, without any legal proceedings or findings of fact.

http://boingboing.net/2016/09/30/sha...he-secret.html

[Winehole23]

Free Speech Weak Links [EFF]


Shadow Regulation: the Back-Room Threat to Digital Rights[Jeremy Malcolm and Mitch Stoltz/EFF]

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Well neither's candidates DoJ is likely to have the balls to pursue an rust on them. Sanders was the only candidate I've ever heard campaign with it.

[Winehole23]

The shadow regulation keeps American purchasers away from legitimate sellers with lower prices. Going forward, ICANN's domain name registration is going to further prevent Americans from accessing more affordable drugs. These groups have pressured ICANN into using the same skewed blacklist when approving .pharmacy domains. While there are still other top-level domains available that may also help bring customers to legitimate vendors these groups want to lock out of the market, that too may change in the coming months. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) wants ICANN to police the web for it and, hopefully, to shut down domains owned by foreign medical vendors it doesn't like.


If it can't force ICANN to bend to its will, it will use tools it already has in place: pressuring online payments providers and ad services to cut off support for any seller it hasn't whitelisted.


This all helps ensure the industry can sell you drugs at the price it wants, rather than the price the market defines.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...y-can-do.shtml