Comment by akerl_
4 years ago
I can’t speak for other governments, but the US governments (both federal and state) derive their authority and their limitations from their contract with the people. You’d be hard pressed to find a constitutional scholar who believes the US Constitution stretches to grant the US government any power that it determines is in the people’s interests.
Notably, one of the most fundamental principles of US government is specifically the notion that the majority, even a supermajority, can’t infringe on the rights of a minority. We’ve screwed this up in plenty of cases, but that doesn’t suggest that the underlying goal is invalid and we should steer into the skid.
There is no right to unrestricted commerce. In many cases new restrictions don't even need new laws just new regulations drafted by bureaucracs defined in existing laws.
You seem to believe that one must reach backwards to the constitution in order to justify any new restrictions on your freedoms in a nation where we have happily redefined commerce within a state as subject to regulation based on the commerce clause. Let alone the general welfare clause.
In fact powers are so broadly construed that the only barrier is enumeration of a restriction in federal law and non violation of fundamental rights.
You have no more fundamental right to sell a locked down device than to build a store without proper fire exits. We didn't need to wait for fire exits to be built and vote with our feet.
How could I not have a right to sell a locked down device? Even Stallman doesn’t question the right of manufacturers to provide closed source / non-user-modifiable software on devices that operate as appliances. My alarm clock runs code to manage the menus / configure alarms / change brightness, but it’s implausible to suggest it’s illegal for the manufacturer to have built a locked down device.
People in this comment page keep drawing parallels between “a hardware device whose software I cannot modify” and things like fire code / health and safety laws. If you think there’s actually a line connecting those, draw it. I’m not seeing it.
You couldn't sell a lock down device if we the people tell you that you can't sell a locked down device the same as you can trivially be told that you can't knock down a tree or bulldoze a wetland or build whatever you please where you please even if you own the land or hire someone for less than minimum wage or employ a minor after certain hours in such and such a city or state or any one of a million other things.
You can argue until you are blue in the face that you don't think such a law is needed or a public good but I fail utterly to understand why you think it would be illegal.
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