NOW MARYLAND

[Jerry D Mead]

The mainstream industry has always been wimpy about fighting for itself...for a couple of reasons. For one, too many lawyers warning of the down side, better to be safe and take the middle road, fear of third party liability suits, not to mention having to do business with those very same wholesalers whose monopoly you're trying to take away. It's the reason New York still doesn't have supermarket, department store, drug store or any kind of chain store sales. All the businesses that would benefit most, fear retribution from the retailers with the current monopoly in the event they are not successful..and with just cause. NY wineries which have publicly supported grocery store sales have been totally boycotted by the retailers.

Then you also have to understand that most of the really large wine operations are owned by distillers and half pints of Seagram 7 or Four Roses ain't ever going to become an Internet sales item. The big distillers have a vested interest in the existing system and they own the wineries which are big enough to have the bucks to do the legal wrangling. The distillers have strong alliances with the major wholesalers in the country.

Consumers are ineffective, because they mostly have no idea what politicians are doing to them until after it's done, and once legislation is passed it's almost impossibleto undo...plus consumers don't bribe the legislators with huge political contributions and have no full time lobbiests working on the case.

Plus the anti-alcohol and anti-shipping forces raise straw dogs like thee threat to minors and loss of taxes and it's not easy to explain to the average consumer why the minor issue just isn't valid when it comes to Internet commerce.

That's some of the problems and it's why the courts and the Constitution are our best shot.

Curmy