I’d read this before years ago, but I just re-realized that in England at least the car RIAA killed automobiles there for a long, long time.

The development of the steam car began in the late 1700s with the Industrial Revolution. By the mid-1800s people had invented practical steam-powered vehicles, but the automobile industry in England was abruptly hamstrung by the “red flag law”. Stage coach owners saw the writing on the wall with the invention of the automobile and took their case to Parliament. In 1831 Parliament passed a law that any automobile had to have a man walking in front of it waving a red flag. At night he had to carry a lantern. This ruined the English market for cars for the next 65 years because they were now too expensive to bother with.

The RIAA/MPAA have wished to do – and have effectively done this – with their copyright schemes and their suppression of free speech on the internet. Since the internet is completely new, it’s hard to accurately assay what we’ve lost, or rather not gained.

For somewhat-understandable reasons, people are spectacularly bad at gauging opportunity cost.