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tbauman 's review for:
I enjoyed this book. The big idea I learned from it was that while monopolies may be okay for markets that compete on easily-measured factors like price and quality (as long as there's a threat of competition), for information markets you need to put extra effort in to ensure that markets are competitive and fair for everyone. This is because each product is valuable in itself to different people and can't be easily compared by consumers. Also, the free flow of information has massive benefits outside the market, such as helping democracy function or spreading innovative ideas. The "separation of powers" approach to regulation is also novel and has intuitive appeal. The most difficult part is where you draw the line between the medium and the message, and where you draw the line between a product and information. I also learned a fair amount about the history of media from this book.