The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update

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Issues in the News

1.  ENVIRONMENT

Some natural wonders are privately owned, like Natural Bridge and Luray Caverns in Virginia and Grandfather Mountain and Chimney Rock in North Carolina.  But now Chimney Rock Park  is being sold to the state.  CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst Robert J. Smith on the benefits of private conservation efforts.

“People have a long history of conserving nature privately. They’ve done it in the past, they’re doing it now and they’ll do it in the future. Government takes a cookie cutter approach when it comes to protecting the environment. Private conservation allows virtually every person in this country who has a vision, to take an active role in saving species and habitat.”

2.  TELECOM & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY

In a surprise move, Viacom dashed off 100,000 notice and takedown requests to YouTube. CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Technology Studies Clyde Wayne Crews

Using technology to package and protect copyrighted works is a form of intellectual property self-help. Self-help dominates our entire legal system, as influenced by Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Self-help arrangements, either contractual or self-defense, occur everyday. Society permits, even encourages, self-help when the legal remedy is less available or less efficient. Copyright owners need to be free—indeed, even encouraged—to protect their digital content.

3.   WAR ON TERROR

Is the war on terror getting a little out of control?  A recent story about the government cracking down on an inventive publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon gave Bureaucrash freedom activists cause for alarm about just how heavy handed the state can get.  CEI Expert Available to Comment: Bureaucrash Crasher-in-Chief Jason Talley

“What we are witnessing is a massive government overreaction, and because their power depends on our faith in their institution, they feel they must prosecute the artists responsible for this.”

Blog feature: For more news and analysis, updated throughout the day, visit CEI’s blog, Open Market.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

To contact a CEI expert for comment or interviews, please call the CEI communications department at 202-331-2273 or email to [email protected].