Commerce:: Definitions for Commerce ------------------------ Commerce is the distribution, buying, selling, exchange, and/or promotion, of an item, substance, service, and/or system. Production is the design, implementation, manufacture, distribution, deployment, and/or use, of an item, substance, service, and/or system. Enterprise is any activity of production or commerce. A common carrier is an incorporated entity that relays animate or inanimate material, or information, from an origin to a destination, pursuant to terms published by the incorporated entity, according to the instructions of its customers as constrained by those terms, for a fee or for free, and barring unintended exceptions, delivering the material or information to its destination essentially unchanged from its condition at the origin. A common carrier by design is available to the public, and an incorporated entity cannot be construed to be a common carrier unless it is available to the public. A common carrier does not discriminate between different items of information except by volume of information and handling preferences and requirements. A common carrier does not discriminate between different items of material except by weight and external dimensions, handling preferences and requirements, and as required by law. An advertising arena is any program, or portion thereof, which is available to the general public, and whose content can, for a fee, be defined in whole or in part by an organization other than that which supplies the medium to the public. The Incorporated Entity ----------------------- An incorporated entity consists initially of a charter, which enumerates the name, purpose, procedures, and organizational structure, of an initially fictitious incorporated entity. The name includes a base name and a locality extension of a precise form to be specified by law, and with the extension is unique. The locality extension is the type and name of the unit of state corresponding to the smallest geographic region within which the organization's activities will be initially confined, or the entire country, whichever is smaller. The name (with extension) of the incorporated entity must be registered with an appropriate agent of the appropriate unit of state, at no fee, so that name uniqueness can be easily verified. If the entity's area of activity changes, it can choose to update the locality extension to reflect the new area of activity, changing its base name if its original base name is already in use with the new locality extension. When this change occurs, the previous unit of state of incorporation must be notified, and the new name registered with the unit of state whose geographic domain corresponds to the new area of activity. A group of individuals can then formally organize and legally bind themselves through a set of contractual agreements each of which names the individual and the heretofore fictitious entity as the signatories. This contract must include the unabridged charter. Such individuals become members of the organization after proper signatures have been recorded. The first such individual is one named in the charter as a valid representative of the incorporated entity. The contract signed by this individual is signed only by this individual. Thereafter, the incorporated entity is no longer fictitious, and the signature of the incorporated entity on further contracts must be supplied by this or another valid, contractually bound representative. The members are responsible to an agreed upon degree, in an agreed upon fashion, and in a court of law, for the activities of the organization, actions which are typically taken under the appellation of the organization. This responsibility cannot be construed to automatically implicate a member of the organization for counter-contract or criminal action(s) taken by another member, whether or not the other member takes the action(s) under the appellation of the organization. Charters of incorporated entities are national. Court cases brought by or against incorporated entities start as specified in. Contracts in which one party is an incorporated entity can only be enforced at court in this nation if the incorporated entity has a charter within this nation. All members of an incorporated entity, as listed in the charter, must be in the identification database described in . The parties to the charter of an incorporated entity must have absolute control over the internal affairs of that incorporated entity. In particular, some subset of the membership (possibly equal to the full membership), including anyone with an ownership share, designated in the current charter of record as directors, and with vote-weights specified for each and directly proportional to ownership share, must have the authority to issue any lawful directive (which they will have agreed upon by some mechanism of their own design) consistent with the charter when votes for less votes against exceeds 50% of the sum of the vote-weights of the directors, or a more easily attained threshold as specified in the charter. Each director must be able to vote fractionally, casting only a portion of his vote-weight for or against, but cannot cast some of his vote-weight for and some against in a single vote. The charter, and the identities of all members with a current share of ownership, revealing particularly the proportion of ownership of each, must be publicly available. If an agent of an incorporated entity with a charter in this nation commits an act anywhere in the world that is unlawful throughout this nation, on behalf of that incorporated entity and with the foreknowledge or direction of any member of that incorporated entity, both the incorporated entity and the agent must be prosecuted in this nation. If the incorporated entity fails to satisfy a lawfully ordered penalty, then it cannot enforce in any court of this nation any contract, though others can still enforce at court contracts they have with this incorporated entity. The incorporated entity can be ordered to end its affiliation with the agent, and can be ordered to eject without possibility of readmission any member or employee who directed the act. Incorporated entities are not as such entitled to the rights of individuals, and cannot be considered to be individuals or as though individuals in law. Incorporated entities must be wholly owned by their employees. No law can require that a particular number, proportion, or class of employees of an incorporated entity be shareholders in that incorporated entity. An employee of an incorporated entity is an individual who annually performs at least 1000 hours of work on behalf of that incorporated entity, and is recognized formally by that incorporated entity as an employee. No individual can be an employee of more than one incorporated entity operating in the same domain, as defined in . Incorporated entities that operate in the same domain cannot merge. The state cannot otherwise impede the merger of incorporated entities, and under no circumstances can an incorporated entity be compelled by the state to divide into multiple incorporated entities. No contract can promise to an individual a share of ownership in an incorporated entity of which he is not currently an employee, if the individual currently has a share of ownership in another incorporated entity that operates in a domain in which the former incorporated entity operates. No law can limit the properties owned by an individual or incorporated entity based on the variety or extent of those properties, or act on that basis, though the purchase of particular land properties can be temporarily embargoed as specified in this document. No employment contract can specify consequences for non-criminal conduct of an employee while that employee is off the premises of the employer, not drawing a wage, and not displaying paraphernalia specifically identifying the employee as acting in an official capacity on behalf of the employer. An employee contract can require an employee to divulge the contents of a conversation only if that conversation revealed an intent to take action directly harmful to the incorporated entity. The Contract ------------ A contract is a document the terms of which are enforceable at state court, signed by two or more parties, wherein the parties agree to specified conduct for a specified interval and circumstance. Each party may be an individual or an incorporated entity with specified signatories who are authorities of the incorporated entity. Except as specified in this document, a unilateral document, signed by a single party (for example, simple permission), cannot be construed as a contract. Any portion of a contract in which the signatory abdicates any of the organic or metabolic rights enumerated in this document is void. No contract can explicitly bind an individual in perpetuity. Any portion of a contract that specifies law-breaking is void. The penalty for breach of contract is as specified by the contract, and no penalty not specified by the contract can be levied in any case. Except as agreed to in binding contract, the resignation of any employee, including state soldiers, must be accepted without delay or legal ramification. Advertising amounts to an implicit contract the advertiser enters with any purchaser of the product advertised. The act of purchase is an implicit signature, and may involve agreement to constraints with respect to the product, which must be provided to the buyer in written or electronic form before he is allowed to purchase. Any contract between a manufacturer and a retailer, in which a retail point-of-sale not majority-owned by a manufacturer is bound to price or advertising restrictions, or in which constraints are placed on the stocking, display, or sale, of any product, are void. A contract with the public can be entered by a party. The terms of the published contract bind the party, and violation of these terms is prosecuted by the state, and penalized according to the terms of the contract, entirely at the expense of the party. The public is in no way constrained by the contract, and the state serves as signatory on behalf of the public. Proceeds from penalties levied serve to relieve the general tax burden, as do the proceeds from any punitive fine. A candidate for public office can enter a contract with the public, wherein he guarantees voting positions on any number of questions, if and whenever those questions are put to votes. He must prioritize his positions, so that his voting position on a compound question is clear even if he must vote counter to one position guarantee in order to adhere to another. Each formal contract with named signatory parties must specify a minimum monetary settlement equivalent (MMSE), identifying which party pays and which party receives the settlement. The recipient is the beneficiary. Payment of the MMSE dissolves all contractual obligations except for non-disclosure agreements. A proportion of the MMSE is paid as general tax revenue. The proportion is an annually uniform baseline proportion multiplied by the duration of coverage (in units of years) desired. The baseline proportion, determined annually, cannot more than 1%. In the case that no MMSE is specified for a non-disclosure clause in a contract, a proportion of the specified breach penalty is paid as general tax revenue. For the purposes of taxation, those penalties that are incarceration are converted to monetary punition at the rate of 6 hour's average wages per day of incarceration, and those penalties that specify punitive labor are converted to monetary punition at the rate of one hour's average wages per hour of punitive labor. A contract can specify as punition only monetary fines, punitive labor, and/or incarceration. The national unit of state sells uniquely serialized contract tax certificates which are purchased anonymously in an amount specified by the purchaser and attached to a particular contract. Each certificate identifies the period of time covered by the certificate. This period cannot extend more than one year into the future. The attachment to a particular contract is performed by the agent of state who sells the tax certificate, by cryptographically signing a concatenation of the tax certificate serial identifier and a cryptographic digest of the contract as provided by the purchaser, producing a receipt. Enforceability can be perpetuated by timely purchase of additional contract tax certificates. A contract tax certificates for a period of up to one year in the immediate past can be purchased at three times the cost for a certificate covering future periods of equal duration. A contract can be enforced at court only if a receipt is produced proving payment of taxes covering, in an uninterrupted fashion, the period starting with the initial signing of the contract and continuing beyond the time when the alleged breach allegedly transpired. The full contract must be produced, and its digest must match the digest contained in the receipt. For the duration of litigation of a contract, the tax payment requirement is suspended, and is due at the conclusion of litigation as ordered by the court. No law can require or permit an agent of the state to demand the contents of a contract, for the purposes of determining contract tax or for any other purpose, except in court proceedings initiated by a party to the contract, or when the contents of the contract are declared material to a trial by a court. In these exceptions, the contents of the contract are kept in confidence, available only to those participating in the trial and with a need to know. Except as otherwise specified in this document or agreed to by all parties to a contract, timely payment of contract taxes is the sole responsibility of the party identified as the recipient of the contract's MMSE. Except in the case of money, in any transfer of a contract, all receipts for contract tax certificates purchased by contract parties past and present must be presented to all new parties to the contract before the new parties confirm their acceptance of the contract. In the case of money, the issuer of the money must publish all receipts for all contract tax certificates for all outstanding money. Once per month, the collected revenue from contract taxes must be paid to those individuals who incurred intellectual property taxes in the previous month, in precise proportion to the amount of intellectual property taxes incurred by each over that period. No party can enter a contract if doing so would obligate that party such that the party would reasonably be expected to be able to adhere to the terms of one or more pre-existing contracts to which the party is already a signatory, or to the terms of the instant contract, but necessarily or quite probably not both. The MMSE method of settlement cannot be considered in evaluating contracts to determine if they conflict. No law can require a party to be or become a party to a contract, or prohibit a party from, or reward or punish a party for, being or becoming a party to a contract, or change its manner of application on that basis, except as specified in this document. Protection for Intellectual Property and Dignity ------------------------------------------------ WARNING: this section (and the institution of ``intellectual property'') is grossly obsolete. It is to be replaced with a bid system described in the to-do list. Patents and copyrights no longer exist in this implementation of an Innovist legal system. Trademarks are certainly fixtures, however. ===== Within this section, "public" means available on an anonymous basis. The state works to facilitate to creators legally binding guarantees that they can reap financial rewards from their creations. To this end, five registries are maintained: an invention registry, according to which novel techniques are protected; a formulation registry, according to which particular assemblages of techniques are protected; a layout registry, according to which particular visual, tactile/ ergonomic, or auditory layouts are protected; a verbalization registry, according to which particular encapsulable creative instantiations are protected; and a trade and service mark registry, according to which marketing names and symbols are protected. All five registries operate on a first-come-first-served basis, but all five also allow for demonstration of prior invention/use. Except for trademarks, in the case that prior invention/use is proved, either summarily or in court, the ownership of the intellectual property is assigned to he who has proved prior invention/use, but the previously registered owner can continue to use and sell the intellectual property without fee or curtailment. Trademarks are strictly first-applied-first-and-last-granted. Invention protection is not domain-specific. That is, rights to an invention initially granted for use in one industry covers use of the technique in any industry. An invention is protected only from uses which negatively impact the potential for use-based revenue of the inventor. Thus, discussion and description of the invention, and use of the invention for a purpose which does not generate financial revenue (research and experimentation, hobbyist or recreational use, etc.) require neither permission nor payment of a fee. Other use of the invention does require permission (which the inventor can, of course, grant on a blanket basis at his discretion). If invention law is invoked to protect an invention, a creator agrees to license the invention on demand without discretion. He cannot withhold licensing for any reason. Furthermore, the state specifies a maximum fee schedule specific to the particular invention, and the inventor cannot demand a fee beyond the upper bounds specified therein. Only unit fees can be levied; no initiation fee is allowed. The state can base the maximum fee only on the expected market potential of the invention, and is required to increase the fee upper bound if the market demonstrates substantial willingness to pay the current maximum licensing fee. In order for an invention to be protected, it has to be substantially different in its effects of technological, economic, and/or creative empowerment from those of any invention already registered. Thus, incremental variations on a technique which has at any time been registered (whether or not the protection is still in force), cannot themselves be registered, and are in fact covered by the original invention. The entire contents of the invention registry are to be published. The registry is to be arranged as a logical subject hierarchy, so that searches can be performed quickly. A formulation is a particular arrangement of logical functioning components. Formulations are protected in the same way as inventions, except that they are domain-specific. The protection of a layout can be guaranteed by law on a limited basis. A layout is a particular combination of geometric arrangement, typography, color choice, or other specific patterns of visual, tactile/ergonomic, and/or auditory arrangement. In order for a layout to enjoy protection, it must be sufficiently idiosyncratic that its protection will not impede the development of the layouts of other creations. more to the point, the latitude of the protection is narrow such that only those aspects of the appearance which are sufficiently idiosyncratic are protected. In applying for protection for a layout, its creator must specify exactly those aspects of the layout for which he is seeking protection. Licensing of a layout is entirely at the discretion of the owner of the layout. Domains are not relevant to verbalizations. Instead, a verbalization is protected as a particular expression (playing on any combination of the human perceptual senses, and interactive or not) of a linguistic, narrative, or expositional/explanatory character. This expression may be in any language, human or otherwise. The expression, any substantial portion thereof, and any derivation directly therefrom, is protected. A work need not be published to enjoy verbalization protection. It, and portions and derivations thereof, may be licensed entirely at the discretion of the owner. Small excerpts (less than 1%, or less than 1000 words, whichever is less) of the words or images contained in protected material, and retelling of factual information derived from protected material, do not require the permission of the owner(s) or payment of any fees, but do require notification of the owner(s). Trademarks and servicemarks protect brief linguistic, visual, or auditory, identifiers used in marketing. They protect the owner only from misrepresentation of another's product through use of the trade or servicemark. No other protection is provided for marks. A mark is protected from deliberate infringement by a substantially similar mark. Marks can be either domain-specific or non-specific. The terms associated with each of the registries are as follows: inventions: 15 years, non-renewable formulations: 25 years, non-renewable layouts: 50 years, indefinitely renewable verbalizations: 50 years, indefinitely renewable trademarks: 10 years, indefinitely renewable Each license for use of a work protected in any of the five registries must identify the licensee, the work at issue uniquely by name, creator(s), and description, and must enumerate the mode(s) of usage being licensed. The ownership of a work rests uniquely with its creator(s). No contract can stipulate a transfer, waiver, or agreement to not assert the rights of creation, herein enumerated. The right of the creator to demand the perpetual dignity of his creations (formulations, layouts, and verbalizations) cannot be infringed, waived, assigned, or abandoned. By this right, the creator can prevent the use, sale, and/or display of a version of his creation constitutionally modified in any way. Should a court determine that the creator's claim is viable, the offender is bound to rectify. If the offender fails to do so within a period of 14 days, the creator can use any means available to him to suitably alter or eliminate the offending item. The creator of a work (a formulation, a layout, or a verbalization) furthermore has a perpetual and inviolable right to have his name appear with his works at his request. The remainder of this section applies only to verbalizations, and does not apply to inventions, formulations, layouts, or trademarks. The owner of a work protected by verbalization rights can offer licenses for use and replay of that work according to a contract of his own specification. Such contract must constrain the licensee to maintain the confidence of the work at issue to a degree sufficient to deny to non-licenseholders access to the principal virtues of the work. If the assent or intent of all the creator(s) is recorded that such be done (i.e. a license identifying the public at large as the licensee), a work that is published by display, broadcast, or dissemination in any way which precludes identification and contractual binding of the recipient, is no longer owned. A work cannot be held that is neither accompanied by a proper signature by the author[s] identifying the licensee, nor accompanied by a signature by the author[s] identifying the public at large as the licensee (an abandonment of ownership), nor associated with a signature by the author[s] published elsewhere identifying the public at large as the licensee. No work is to be considered ever to be in the public domain. All works are perpetually within the domain of their creators, except that this domain is transferred by will or default only upon death of the current arbiter of the domain. By default, the domain is assigned in full to the surviving mentally competent spouse, eldest mentally competent child, or closest surviving mentally competent relative, in order of preference. The improper introduction into a public arena of a work demands restitution by the offender, when possible, and always results in the issuance of an announcement (at the expense of the offender) in the same arena that the introduction was improper. Specifically, a work can be assured to have been legitimately introduced to a public arena only when it includes a notice of abandonment of ownership properly signed by the creator. Introduction of a work into a public arena for purposes of encouraging or realizing financial gain must be accompanied by a signed notice of abandonment. The lack of such a signature does not alone comprise sufficient grounds to argue that a ownership of a work introduced into a public arena is not abandoned, or that the work is unlawfully held by a recipient. Thus, ownership of a verbalization can be abandoned, but authorship cannot. Right of Enterprise ------------------- The state cannot restrict enterprise except as set forth in this document. Right of Edibles Distribution ----------------------------- The right of distribution of non-psychoactive edible products cannot be restricted except as justified in avoiding propagation of destructive lifeforms (parasites, aggressive non-native species, etc.) and to avert the threat of artificial epidemics brought about through abuse of antibiotics to which microbes have been shown to develop resistance. Regulation of Psychoactives --------------------------- A psychoactive is defined as a substance which, when introduced into the human body in small quantities through ingestion, injection, inhalation, or contact with and diffusion through skin or membranes, exerts a non-uniform and direct effect on the organic systems of the brain through the acceleration, inhibition, or other modulation, reorganization, or reconfiguration, of chemical synthesis, metabolism, transport, or binding, or signal conveyance and processing. Furthermore, the effect of a psychoactive on the brain is not due to an evolved, specifically targeted responsiveness to naturally occuring environmental factors or dietary components. Aside from the obvious relevance of legal guarantees of private property rights, the planting, picking, harvesting, and consumption of vegetation with psychoactive properties cannot be regulated by law, provided the raw product is not chemically modified or artificially concentrated (except insofar as combustion comprises a chemical modification), except by the below restriction regarding operation of machinery. An individual under the influence of a psychoactive which impairs motor coordination or markedly alters judgement must not operate machinery which can reasonably be expected to physically harm others if operated incorrectly. For example, the amount of caffeine in a regular cup of coffee does not preclude operation of such machinery, nor does a small quantity of alcohol, nor does a small dose of amphetamine, though any of these substances in larger quantities preclude safe and legal operation of such machinery. Except for the above restriction regarding operation of machinery, no law can be empowered that forbids or regulates the acceptable settings wherein naturally occuring psychoactives can be consumed by simple ingestion. Consumption by combustion of naturally occuring psychoactives is similarly exempt from interference, except that an individual who is not an owner or tenant of the space where he is, and who does not have the permission of the tenant or, if there is no tenant, owner of the space where he is, must refrain from smoking when asked to by another individual with whom he shares an enclosed space, or when he is asked to refrain by someone inside an enclosed public area when he is within 10 feet of the entrance to the enclosed public area, or when a sign on the interior wall of an enclosed space forbids smoking. Conventional breeding and hybridization, of the type which does not require any expertise with or technologies of molecular biology, cannot be construed as chemical modification or artificial concentration. The remainder of this section applies only to synthetic, chemically processed, or artificially concentrated psychoactives, and to sale, purchase, distribution beyond personal acquaintances, and distribution to non-adults, of any psychoactive. Within constraints outlined below, psychoactives can be purchased only by adults and consumed by anyone on private property with the property owner's or tenant's consent; additionally a non-adult must have the permission of at least one of his guardians to take a synthetic psychoactive. Four classes of psychoactives are hereby established: mild, moderate, strong, and extreme, according to the degree to which a nominal dose has been shown to impair the judgement of the user such that the rights of others are likely to be jeopardized. A psychoactive must belong to only one class. In typical doses, mild psychoactives exert no significant influence on thought processes, neither markedly inhibiting activity nor markedly stimulating it. They do not result in a marked impairment of judgement, nor any significant impairment of dexterity and coordination. Nicotine and caffeine are hereby immutably classified as mild. In typical doses, moderate psychoactives are not psychotomimetic, do not dramatically stimulate physical activity, and do not dramatically increase stamina. Ethanol, opiates, tetrahydrocannabinol, and barbituates are hereby immutably classified as moderate. In typical doses, strong psychoactives may be psychotomimetic, may dramatically stimulate physical activity, may dramatically increase stamina, and may produce in the user an apparent imperviousness to pain. A strong psychoactive must be either a psychotomimetic or an activity stimulant, stamina extender, or pain effacer, but cannot be both. Serotonergic hallucinogens, amphetamines, amphetamine-analogue hallucinogens, and cocaine analogues are hereby immutably classified as strong. In typical doses, extreme psychoactives are both psychotomimetic and activity stimulants, stamina extenders, or pain effacers. Phencyclidines are hereby immutably classified as extreme. It is the responsibility of the state to enforce restriction of consumption and experience of moderate, strong, and extreme psychoactives to licensed users or exclusively to controlled environments, as follows. Parlors are licensed by the state and, above and beyond the normal responsibilities of a point of psychoactives distribution, are required to restrict the movement of the client to a safe and controlled environment, and must not allow the client to leave the controlled environment without first verifying that the client is sufficiently sober regarding both judgement and motor skills. Parlors are only accessible to adults, and must be tended by strictly sober staff. Moderate and strong psychoactives must first be sampled in a parlor, and depending on the reaction of the individual (lack of destructive conduct, and the individual's performance on a battery of computer-administered tests while under the full influence of the substance, which tests only to verify the individual's continued respect for the rights of others), a license for private purchase and use is granted. An individual who gives an unlicensed individual a moderate or strong psychoactive shares responsibility and liability for the actions of the unlicensed individual while said individual is under the influence of the psychoactive. Police can use non-invasive detection technology during any arrest for a biological or destructive crime, in order to detect and identify a psychoactive drug in the system of the arrested individual. The arrested individual must be informed of the identities of any drugs detected. Only at the request of the individual being arrested, an invasive tissue sample must be taken for detailed laboratory confirmation of any field finding of psychoactive influence. If an individual is found to be under the influence of a moderate, strong, or extreme psychoactive at the time he commits a biological or destructive crime, his license to buy that psychoactive is suspended for a year, and he is forbidden to use the psychoactive identified in said license for that year. If the psychoactive is strong or extreme, the individual's license to purchase any strong or extreme psychoactive is suspended for one year, and he is forbidden to use any strong or extreme psychoactive for that period. Any psychoactive prescribed by a trained medical professional according to the accepted medical guidelines for therapy is exempt from any such suspension of the right to purchase and use a psychoactive or class thereof. In order for a suspended license to be reinstated, the individual must successfully complete a state-approved remedial program. No law can restrict enterprise in psychoactives beyond the restrictions laid out in this document. Employees of the state must not be under the metabolic influence of a psychoactive drug other than a mild psychoactive, while working, except as formally authorized by a controlling official according to law. Violation of the terms of this section is a minor crime, unless a non-adult is involved, in which case it is a serious crime. Violations of the terms of this section cannot be construed to be biological or destructive crimes. On Advertising -------------- Any advertising, whether or not in a public advertising arena, must clearly identify the legal owners (by name of incorporation) of the means of enterprise. The Monopoly ------------ For the purposes of this section, a domain is a class of products or services delineated as follows. Two products or services are in the same domain if the functions for which the two products or services are suited by design or intent substantially overlap, and in different domains if those functions do not substantially overlap. Differences in particular brand or trademark, or trivial differences in variety, or differences in particular manner or quality of performance in a service, cannot in and of themselves be construed to indicate a distinction of domain. Differences in suitability for animals, humans, inanimate material, bulk quantities, packaged small quantity, manufacture, distribution, retail sales, etc., constitute differences of domain. No individual or incorporated entity can enter contracts that secure in advance delivery of more than 33% of one month's national service or production capacity for a domain, provided that an individual or incorporated entity's right to purchase products outright is unabridged. No incorporated entity can enter a contract with another incorporated entity that binds or concerns enterprise in a domain in which both incorporated entities engage in enterprise. No individual or incorporated entity can enter a contract whose terms restrict the prices it charges parties not signatory to that contract, or the manner in which it accepts or rejects customers, or the selection and characteristics of the products or services it offers, provided that this restriction has no bearing on contracts between incorporated entities and employees thereof. A staple infrastructure service is a service with a fixed physical distribution and/or service location, infrastructure, or fleet, and such that the service cannot be provided except where this infrastructure operates. A staple product is a product supplied via a staple infrastructure service. A monopoly is an economic circumstance in which a single party has control of the entire supply of a domain. For the purposes of this section, the domain must be one of staple products or services, as elaborated herein. For monopoly restrictions as enumerated in this section to apply to a party, the party must either be the state, or be doing business for a fee and be either an incorporated entity, or an individual doing business with members of the public beyond those with whom the individual has a pre-existing acquaintance. An incorporated entity is a substantial monopoly, and subject to further constraints as enumerated in this document, if more than 50% of its gross revenue is from sales and service in domains in which it has a monopoly. A party's commerce in a domain in which it has a monopoly is restricted as elaborated herein, but these restrictions do not apply to that party's commerce in domains in which it does not have a monopoly, unless the party is a substantial monopoly or the state. The state cannot explicitly grant, secure, guarantee, or reward erection, maintenance, or operation of a monopoly by an individual or incorporated entity. The state cannot forbid, halt, penalize, or specially regulate such erection, maintance, or operation, except as specifically set forth in this document. Each of the following constitutes at least one distinct domain of monopoly for the purposes of this document: railway transport services from point A to point B except when an alternate route of disjoint ownership and regular transit time (for the same train) not more than 10% longer, from a point C not more than 10 miles from point A to a point D not more than 10 miles from point B, is available, railway transit service from a particular station (subways, trolleys, trams, etc.), airports and access thereto when there is no alternative within 25 miles, seaports and riverports when there is no alternative within 10 miles, waterways and bodies of water that are not freely accessible without a fee, ferry service between point A and point B when there is no other ferry service that links a point C within one mile of point A and a point D within one mile of point B, transportation by water between point A and point B when there is no other transportation service that links a point C within ten miles of point A and a point D within ten miles of point B, roadways administered as though state-owned, supply depots for a particular staple fuel or oil and grade thereof (gasoline, diesel, ethanol, methanol, methane, natural or liquid petroleum gas, fuel oil, staple lubricants, etc.) when the closest alternative is more than ten miles distant, agricultural supplies when the nearest alternative is more than 25 miles distant, supply of a particular type of drug (excluding psychoactives) or medical product when the nearest alternative is more than ten miles distant, emergency medical services including emergency ambulance and emergency surgery, building supply (including construction, refurbishing, and janitorial supplies) when the nearest alternative is more than 25 miles distant, hardware and tractor supply and rental (agricultural, construction, excavation, and logging) when the nearest alternative is more than 25 miles distant, grocery supply (ignoring exclusivity of supply of non-staple foodstuffs) when the nearest alternative is more than ten miles distant, PDDW supply when the nearest alternative is more than 25 miles distant, use of a shooting range that charges a per-visit or per-time-unit usage fee when the nearest alternative is more than 25 miles distant, commercial radio broadcast in which more than 10% of residents within the primary contour are within the primary contour only of the instant channel site within the band of that site, wireless duplex communications infrastructure for access to a particular network via a particular transponder when more than 10% of residents within the area served by the transponder are not within the area served by any other transponder that provides access to that network with a similar or greater quality of connectivity, any facility that sells state-owned products to the public, and any state-owned facility or operation that provides services to the public. The following are usually, though not inherently, monopolies: fixed water distribution infrastructure, fixed steam distribution infrastructure, fixed electrical power distribution infrastructure, wired broadcast communications infrastructure, fixed gas (natural gas, propane, etc.) distribution infrastructure, and sewage and drainage infrastructure. The following can be, though are often not, monopolies: duplex communications infrastructure for a particular network (wired or wireless) servicing a particular location, roadway vehicular mass transportation service (bus or trolley) when an alternative point of pickup or dropoff is more than 500 feet distant, roadway emergency service (principally, towing and flatbedding, which are separate domains) for a particular location, heating fuel delivery for a particular type and grade of fuel and location, postal or package pickup/shipping/delivery services for a particular location, and garbage pickup for a particular location. The following cannot ever be considered staples or monopolies for the purposes of this document: building services (including construction, refurbushing and restoration, and janitorial services), equipment rental providers except as specified above, repair service providers (for vehicles, electronics, and other machines and items), retailers of non-staple items (such as jewelry, furniture, books and other media, computers, recreational electronics, and vehicles (not including tractors)), legal and accounting service providers, medical services except for emergency medical services, technical services including media production and software engineering, artistic and advertising services, scientific services, banking services, insurance, educational services, private security and investigative services, churches, and any service of similar nature to these. A monopolizable product or service is a product or service of which a party can have a monopoly as defined herein. The provider of a monopolizable product or service must publish and display a thorough current fee schedule covering all monopolizable products and services, valid for at least one day subsequent to publication and display, to which it must strictly adhere. Such a fee schedule must be displayed any time the provider is accepting customers. No term of a contract that a party with a monopoly in a domain requires a customer for that domain to enter can bind the customer in any manner other than payment, upon or before delivery or performance, in an amount clearly stated and precisely equal to that specified by the published and displayed fee schedule applicable at the time of signing, and if applicable, return of rented equipment in substantially the same condition it was in when first transferred into the custody of the customer. In the manner in which it can enter contracts to provide a monopolizable product or service, the provider of that product or service is restricted as though it actually has a monopoly on that product or service, and is restricted in the formation and entrance of the contract (but, except as specified herein, in other matters only if it has an actual monopoly as defined herein) particularly as set forth in this section and in . Upon the request of a rejected customer, the provider of a staple product or service must supply a receipt of rejection to it, with which it can prove the time and place of rejection. The receipt must also specify the terms under which the customer will be accepted; in particular, in cases in which the customer is rejected based on the quantity of a particular product or service it desires, the receipt must specify the quantity of that product or service which the supplier is willing and able to supply. If no member - of a set of providers of a staple product or service who, taken together (using any one of them as a hub for the purposes of radius constraint when applicable), constitute a monopoly - agrees to supply a product or service to a particular customer, then that customer is empowered to apportion its order for the product or service to one, a subset, or all of the providers, who then must, to the best of their ability, provide the product or service to the customer for a fee as dictated by the current fee schedule of each. However, if the quantity or nature of the particular product or service ordered from a particular supplier by the rejected customer is such that the rejected customer cannot be supplied or serviced without causing a failure to perform according to standing contracts with accepted customers, then the rejected customer cannot compel that supplier to supply it with the quantity of the product or service at issue. Commerce in Weapons ------------------- For an item to be considered a PDDW for the purposes of this document, its fabrication must be practical only with the assistance of machine tools, high power presses or swages, electrical circuits, and/or industrial chemicals. No weapon that can be constructed without the assistance of such equipment can be construed to be a PDDW regulated by this section. For the purposes of this section, a PDDW must readily and reliably enable the killing of a human being at a distance of ten meters. Knives and archery equipment cannot be construed as PDDW's. A firearm is a device which propels a projectile, either by the exertion of pressure from the combustion or other expansion of a propellant constrained within a chamber, or by electromagnetic or electrostatic action. If and only if a firearm is readily capable of propelling a projectile with a kinetic energy of 40 joules or greater, at a peak speed of 100 meters/second or greater, it is a PDDW for the purposes of this section, except as exempted above. Any firearm cartridge or bullet readily usable in a PDDW is a PDDW item for the purposes of this section. No restrictions can be placed on the features and characteristics of a PDDW except those set forth in . In particular, except as enumerated in this section, no constraints can be placed on the bore, muzzle velocity, bullet construction and composition, action and rate of fire, cartridge capacity, grip and ergonomic characteristics, sighting devices and accuracy, attached bayonet, grenade launcher, appearance, technology, or dimensions of a firearm. PDDW manufacturers are required to provide the state with forensic tracking data when feasible. The manufacturer of any firearm with a rifled barrel must provide the state with a measurement of each barrel's signature as determined from a test firing, along with a description of the device. A manufacturer of firearms or firearm components must stamp or otherwise record a unique identifier on each receiver and barrel, in a tamper-resistant manner. A serialized unique alphanumeric identifier must be associated with the smallest unit of retail sale of expendables (principally, ammunition). This identifier must be legibly written in a tamper-resistant manner, with ink, paint, dye, or by other means, on any projectile weighing more than 16 grams. The identifier must be stamped, engraved, or otherwise recorded, in a tamper-resistant manner, on the shell case, when the ammunition includes cases. When the ammunition is caseless, the identifier must by legibly written, in a tamper-resistant manner, with ink, paint, dye, or by other means, on the propellant portion of the ammunition. A unique signature chemistry, signature object, or other tamper-resistant marker, must be associated with each unique identifier, and must be embedded within the body of each bullet, slug, shot ball, or other projectile, either mixed with ballasting material, or under a jacket, or in a fully contained cavity possibly mixed with an incendiary or other compound, or otherwise contained within the projectile, except that any unjacketed projectile consisting of a monolith of metal as hard as or harder than copper or bronze, is exempted from the requirement of internal signature marking, but must instead bear external tamper-resistant chemical staining or other treatment (particularly including the portion of the projectile that is concealed from view when the projectile is seated in a cartridge case or bonded to a propellant load), from which a forensic signature can be determined, which marking must survive ordinary firing but need not survive a deliberate attack with abrasion, heat, chemical corrosion, or other disfiguring techniques. Any signature marker must be readily readable/measurable by a well-equipped forensics lab, perhaps through the use of specialized equipment. Each manufacturer of such signature markers must supply the state with information necessary and sufficient to determine the manufacturer and serial number associated with a PDDW item containing those signature markers, using forensic techniques. These signature markers must be considered PDDW items themselves. Serial identifiers must be used in recording any transfer of custody of firearms, barrels, receivers, ammunition, cases, bullets, or any other PDDW item. The manufacturer of a PDDW item must maintain an exhaustive database matching forensic information to serial identifiers. No law can specify the use of a particular technique of signature marking, although (with the above exception) a minimum standard of robustness (in terms of mechanical, thermal, and chemical stresses) can be specified by law. No such standard can effectively require a functionally significant degradation in performance or a significant degradation of price/performance ratio. In any transfer of custody of a PDDW item (a PDDW, receiver, barrel, ammunition, bullet, cartridge case, forensic signature substance, etc.) the giver is required to verify the validity of the buyer's license before completing the transfer. In so doing, the seller must access the license revocation/suspension database anonymously. Additionally, the buyer must cryptographically sign a transaction document identifying the PDDW item by description and serial identifier(s) and the time and place of transaction, confirming the purchase, and the seller must cryptographically verify the signature. This act makes the buyer the custodian of record. The buyer's signature must be verified using the public key supplied by the buyer and matching the identity specified in the PDDW license. This public key must be certified by a state certificate authority, and the certificate must be verified either with the seller's copy of the appropriate public key of the appropriate state certificate authority, or by retrieving the appropriate public key of the appropriate state certificate authority. A transaction document identifies the prior chain of custody, exactly one buyer, exactly one seller, exactly one date and time of transaction, and the description (including number/quantity) and serial identifier of some number of identical PDDW items all of which have the same serial identifier. The seller can reveal the contents of the transaction document only according to the terms specified in , except as specified in this section; it is assumed that the buyer wishes the transaction to be held in confidence whether or not he explicitly so states. It is the legal responsibility of the seller to archive an encryption of each transaction document for safekeeping, in at least one physically separate facility. The seller must keep a transaction document until the corresponding PDDW item has been destroyed, or upon the death, irreversible incapacitation, or disqualification of the seller as detailed below. Decryption of stored and archived transaction documents must be feasible only by the seller and by whatever agent the seller has designated for transfer of transaction documents upon death or irreversible incapacitation as detailed below. In encrypted form, the transaction document must not reveal any information about the time and place of the transaction, the identity and characteristics of the PDDW item, or the recipient of the PDDW item. Neither a court nor any other organ of the state can demand or accept the contents of a PDDW item transaction document unless the corresponding PDDW item is believed to have been used in the commission of a crime, or to have been transferred to an individual whose PDDW license is suspended or revoked. In particular, those contents can only be demanded if a PDDW item forensic signature determined in a criminal investigation matches one or more PDDW item forensic signatures in a manufacturer's database. The state can submit a forensic signature believed to be associated with the commission of a crime to any PDDW manufacturer, who must inform the state of the serial number or numbers associated with any entries in its forensic database that match the forensic profile. The chain of custody is determined based on the candidate serial identifer(s), sequentially, beginning with the manufacturer. Any such demand must identify the desired transaction document with a single serial identifier, and no further information. The contents can only be accepted if they were lawfully demanded, or if a serial identifier or set thereof, identified as required to render demand legitimate, is published in an anonymously accessible forum of automated distribution, or if a license is suspended or revoked, and a citizen volunteers a decrypted transaction document for a matching PDDW item. The state must electronically announce all suspensions and revocations of PDDW licenses, and the serial identifiers of all PDDW items used in crimes, such that the public at large is alerted in a timely manner. All such announcements must include the nature, time, and place, of the crime which prompted the announcement. All individuals who have sold a PDDW item must examine all their transaction documents at least once a month, and supply the state with decryptions of all documents for transactions which involve the transfer of a PDDW item to an individual whose PDDW license is suspended or revoked, or the transfer of a PDDW item which has been used in a crime. The state must destroy any record of the unencrypted contents of PDDW item transaction documents within three months of obtaining them. Upon the death, irreversible mental incapacitation, or disqualification from ownership of a PDDW, of an individual who has sold one or more PDDW items, each transaction record must be delivered in readable form by a designated agent to the most recent prior custodian who is either an individual still alive and mentally capable, or a still-active incorporated entity, except that if a vigilant search for such a prior custodian fails to locate any, or reveals that none are still extant and qualified, then the designated agent becomes the new custodian of that transaction record, and must submit to the state the serial identifiers contained in that transaction record, in documents he has cryptographically signed. In order that the actions described in the previous paragraph can be taken, it is the responsibility of the seller to arrange for the accessibility of his record database by designating and enlisting an agent capable of decrypting stored and archived transaction records, and contractually charged with the obligation of seeing to the transfer of these records as detailed above. This agent cannot be part of the state, cannot be an incorporated entity, must be a resident of the same county as the seller, must not be disqualified from holding a PDDW license, and must not obtain any of the seller's transaction records prior to the death or irreversible incapacitation of the seller. Except on the occasion that the agent becomes the custodian of the transaction record as explained in the previous paragraph, he must not observe or otherwise examine any portion of the contents of each transaction record except for the pre-transaction chain of custody recorded therein, and must destroy any transaction records he obtains in the course of fulfilling his above-described obligation once he has fulfilled that obligation. The new custodian of a transaction record must attend to the same array of responsibilities that a seller must, including proper off-premises archiving, and designation and enlistment of an agent capable of fulfilling the obligations described in this and the previous paragraph. The deliberate divulgence of a transaction record contrary to the terms of this section is a minor crime. Except where the immediate military dictates of physical national defense require it, no heavy PDDW can be exported. In particular, no weapon designed to disable vehicles (cars, trucks, planes, trains, boats, etc) or to destroy buildings, or to kill more than one person at a time, or to kill a person in such a way that the weapon need not be tended by an operator, and based on explosives, projectiles, combustion, directed energy (EM or particulate radiation of a nature and intensity sufficient to injure or kill a healthy full-grown person through its direct, immediate or eventual effects, except that potential injury to eyes cannot be considered), or toxins, must not be exported except under the above-described exceptional circumstance. Chemical Tracking ----------------- Bulk custody transfer information for all substances which are already, or can be easily and stealthily manufactured into, explosives (including explosion by nuclear fission or fusion), toxins, or synthetic psychoactives, is to be provided to the state at the time the transfer takes place. No non-psychoactive food can be so categorized. The state must not require the report of purchases in quantities that do not present a credible threat; the quantity threshold is to take into account the density of outlets, so that the thresholds in urban centers are substantially lower than those in rural areas. Computer Non-criticality ------------------------ Any device marked by physical safety ramifications for individuals other than the informed operator(s) and, if applicable, informed staff and/or passenger(s), and not principally known as a computer must, upon failure of an embedded computer, exhibit a non-catastrophic fallback behavior through mechanical or macroelectrical means, usually permitting safe immobilization/neutralization. Primary examples are automobiles, airplanes, trains, traffic lights, and any system where hazardous (toxic, caustic, explosive, extremely hot or cold, extremely high or low pressure, infectious, or radioactive) substances or fast-moving, violent, or destructive mechanics (turbines, flywheels, pile drivers, etc.) are handled under computer control. On Stock -------- Stock is a proportion of ownership of, control over, and responsibility for, an incorporated entity, and can be held only by individual employees of that incorporated entity. No law can restrict the informative basis upon which an individual buys or sells stock.