Posted on 12/06/2013 5:29:47 AM PST by raptor22
Bureaucrats at the Federal Trade Commission must have a lot of spare time. The agency recently swooped to rescue the American people from the threat posed by a collaborative organization of 22,000 professionals who sit down with youngsters and teach them how to play a piano.
As first reported by The Wall Street Journal, regulators forced the Music Teachers National Association, a century-old nonprofit, to accept a consent decree over the group’s code of ethics, which simply encouraged members not to pilfer or recruit students from fellow members. Only in a twisted bureaucratic mind would such a sensible provision be seen as a restraint of trade or a violation of federal law. The Federal Trade Commission is singing off the wrong song sheet.
The association did everything possible to appease the peevish regulators, including expunging the offending language from its code of ethics. The code has never even been enforced, because the obligation for members to follow the code is moral, not legal.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Non-compliance will force the FTC to send in their SWAT teams and shoot up your piano, you and your dog.
Check this out. Out of control again.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/05/criminalizing-everyone/
Would Ford, GM and Chrysler agreeing not to go after each other's customers similarly be a "sensible provision"? Now I agree that it is a silly exercise of state power, similar to a cop writing a ticket for spitting on a sidewalk while a bank robbery is going on across the street, but agreeing not to compete for the same customers is restraint of trade.
0DontCare isn't a restraint of trade?
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