Infotrust-antitrust

From IVP Wiki
Revision as of 22:51, 19 June 2010 by 96.240.216.253 (talk) (New page: =A question of intent: When is it pro-consumer for competitors to collaborate?= <strong>Formation of a Information Trust Association, or activities of an American Newspaper Digital Acces...)
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

A question of intent: When is it pro-consumer for competitors to collaborate?

Formation of a Information Trust Association, or activities of an American Newspaper Digital Access Corp., potentially involve competitors in a common affiliation. Such affiliation is commonplace -- trade associations are a typical example. To help understand areas of appropriate or potentially inappropriate activity, law professor Thomas Hartman of the Univ. of Missouri School of Law will brief us on Thursday. Here are some questions which might help frame the issues.

  • How can the news industry feasibly collaborate in ways which are pro-consumer and not anticompetitive?
  • How could you build a set of protocols and rules for sharing users and content which would maintain a free and open market for digital information, in which all pricing, packaging and product decisions are made independently by independent competitors?
  • If the FAA controls the airways and airports, but airlines compete on price and service, what is the analogy to digital publishing?
  • If railroads use the same guage track, but compete on the basis of freight rates and deliveries, what is the analogy to digital publishing?
  • If you can buy electricity competitively across a national grid which runs at the same 60 cycles per second and is fully interconnected, what is the analogy to digital publishing?