Replies to post #4822 on Distributed Digital Property Board

[aleajactaest]

Hi goin,

Very much agreed re externalities.

A company can create moral externalities (eg pornography), health externalities (eg alcohol which affects the health of consumers increases costs of healthcare insurance), pollution, carbon emissions, the need for copyright enforcement over extended periods - almost anything; and little of which, if anything, is contained in the company's financial statements (which may show fines, carbon offsets or legal provisions, for instance, but will not contemplate the cost to innovation of enforcing Disney's copyright from 1935, for instance).

Yet all these things are, nevertheless, costs borne by society as a result of commercial activity.

It's a pet peeve of mine when companies knowingly try to pass on costs, which really seem naturally to belong to them, to their customers or suppliers. While it is clever, it is enormously disrespectful. Unfortunately, it is something I've noticed some companies trying to do.