February 2011 – Page 3 – The Libertarian Standard

Distill THIS! (or: How The State Gives Small-Scale Distilleries Nightmares)

By Manuel Lora / February 15, 2011 / 3 Comments / 4 minutes of reading

A friend shares the following story:

I was talking with a buddy of mine last night: a lawyer currently working for the state, getting his MBA on the side. He’s been researching the possibility of setting up a distillery firm, and we talked about it for close to an hour. Very interesting stuff, and he’s got some great ideas for how to break into the market and his unique angle.

But the funny part is that probably 45 minutes of that hour was spent talking about his strategy in light of the manifold regulatory hoops and tax laws he has to navigate. Between licensing and taxes, which as you can imagine for hard liquor are absurd, his business model is 100% dominated by meeting the requirements of the state. Some examples: before you can boil an ounce of alcohol, you need local, state, and federal licensing in place. You can’t get the federal until you have the state and local in place, and getting all three takes anywhere from 8-24 months. The problem is that to fill out the paperwork you have to have the facility, equipment, stock, etc. all in place and ready to go; you can’t fill out paperwork for a nonexistent distillery. So he’s looking at having to hold a facility with the equipment for two years while the feds sit around.

You can’t just put up or rent any building, either. Your firm’s place of business has to be in a Class 3 piece of land, which basically means you have to set up out in the middle of nowhere or in a really depressed part of a city. (He lives very close to Baltimore, so he’ll be going for the latter.)

…

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Mimi & Eunice: Balance, again

IP Law, Mimi & Eunice on IP

By Nina Paley / February 14, 2011 / 1 minute of reading

Here’s that word balance again. Read more about the slavery analogy.

~*~

This is a syndicated post, which originally appeared at Mimi and Eunice » IP. View original post.

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Rethinking Intellectual Property: Kinsella’s Mises Academy Online Course

Education, IP Law

By Stephan Kinsella / February 11, 2011 / 2 minutes of reading

My article, Rethinking IP, was published yesterday on Mises Daily. It details the content and purpose of my upcoming Mises Academy course, “Rethinking Intellectual Property: History, Theory, and Economics,” Mises Academy (March 22, 2011 – April 29, 2011).

This is a 6-week course and will run starting March 22, 2011 (on Tuesday evenings, 9pm EST) and will provide an overview of current intellectual property law and the history and origins of IP. This is the second time I’ve offered this course (the first offering, during Fall 2010, being very successful), and my third Mises Academy course (I am currently teaching Libertarian Legal Theory: Property, Conflict, and Society). Click here to read my reflections on teaching the Rethinking IP class the first time.

Here is some feedback provided by past students of this course:

“The class (everything) was perfect. Content wasn’t too deep (nor too shallow) – the reviewed material was just brilliant and the “tuning” was great for someone like myself (engineering background – no profound legal/lawyer experience). It provided all the material to really “understand” (instead of “just knowing”) all that was covered which I find always very important in a class.”

“Instruction was very comprehensive and thought provoking. The instructor was fantastic and very knowledgeable and answered every question asked.”

“Learned more then i expected, the professor seemed to really enjoy teaching the class, and the readings provided were excellent. Overall for the cost I was extremely satisfied.”

“Very interesting ideas I was not exposed to. Inexpensive, convenient, good quality.”

“It is a very fascinating topic and I was quite eager to learn about what I.P. is all about. I thought that Professor Kinsella was able to convey complicated issues to us clearly.”

“Professor Kinsella’s enthusiasm and extra links posted showed his true knowledge and interest in the subject. Great to see.”

As noted, live online lectures will be Tuesdays at 9pm EST, with Office Hours later in the week, probably at 7pm London time.

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“Chaotic lack of rules”

Vulgar Politics

By Manuel Lora / February 10, 2011 / 1 minute of reading

Just when I thought I had heard/read it all, comes this gem out of NYC:

Efforts to tame a lawless bus industry that has left Chinatown like the “Wild West” have been introduced by neighborhood politicians.

The move, which would force buses traveling between New York and other cities to have a permit to operate, has teamed up State Sen. Daniel Squadron, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Council Member Margaret Chin.

They introduced a bill before the State Legislature Friday, designed to create a permit system for the first time ever and ease what they called a “chaotic lack of rules” which puts travelers and neighborhood residents at risk.

It seems that the main problem here is that companies often do not have a designated stop; opponents say this causes traffic problems. Granted, if this is true, then it is because of true, chaos-causing rules–the rules giving the state control of the roads.

“With no rules to regulate buses, the streets of Chinatown are like the Wild West, and that doesn’t work for bus companies or the community,” said Squadron. If only.

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Rothbard’s Button

Anti-Statism, Humor, Technology

By Isaac Bergman / February 10, 2011 / 1 minute of reading

All this recent talk of legislating and implementing an internet “kill switch” is being hyped by statists in the name of national security. Oh, just imagine the horrors if some if some malicious internet terrorists hax0r open the Hoover Dam floodgates, possibly killing thousands!

I readily agree with this FUD; but I disagree with the implementation. In order to protect the “national security interest,” the correct solution is to put not private, but all government, resources behind an internet kill switch! This way when some script kiddies start launching NORAD missiles, Obama can blister his thumb pressing the government kill switch that Murray Rothbard could only dream about.

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