Comments on: Re-Intermediation

By: Nga Chuppa

Nga Chuppa — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 16:14:20 +0000

Fine article! Now understand about this subject far better.

By: Sasha Mosseri

Sasha Mosseri — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 18:31:25 +0000

I’ve been told that Clickbank make it very challenging to receives a commission through compelling you to sell off all kinds of totally different packages via unique cards as well as Paypal. I would really like to work with Clickbank but I’m worried about this. Do you know if it is the case?

By: emlak

emlak — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:40:53 +0000

Hmmm. So it’s OK for me, Joe Citizen, to line up a public opinion campaign to get a business to change their practices, but not for those I’ve elected (or, allowed to be elected, for all of you who don’t vote) to represent me?

By: Harry Lewis

Harry Lewis — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:18:05 +0000

I cross posted a longer version of this piece over in a symposium on Zittrain’s Future of the Internet. Why don’t we move the comment thread over there.

http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2010/09/future-of-the-internet-symposium-re-intermediation.html/comment-page-1#comment-72646

By: Jeff Collier

Jeff Collier — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 05:17:59 +0000

I guess it boils down to how you define “pressured.” And I’ll admit that I don’t know the details there. If it was “take these ads off or we’re going to abuse our power and make life difficult for you and ring up your attorney’s fees, etc.”, then run ’em out on a rail. But what if it was, “You know, we don’t want to spend a lot of tax payer dollars chasing down crime that runs through your site, could you give us a hand and we’ll tell everyone what a good corporate citizen you are” and Craigslist saw the publics relations writing on the wall and consented? Not sure there’s anything to see there.

You let ’em make me wear a helmet when I ride my motorcycle for what I think is roughly the same argument: since the state ends up paying for the chronic care of (a lot of) motorcyclists with head injuries, we can apply a law to limit our liability. Maybe we should just let the troopers chase down the reckless cyclists and… oh wait. That doesn’t work. Too many bad drivers, not enough troopers.

I’m not saying we should outlaw something because there are some illegal practices hiding out there. But if government can convince a company to prophylactically act to prevent crime, we should complain?