Lawyers and Economists Larry Staton Jr takes issue with my "clueless lawyers" post saying

Lawyers do understand economics. Lawyers only want to help musicians if they are their client. Unfortunately for musicians, they do not have enough money to compete with the corporations that enacted CARP, etc... Law, for better or worse, is a business first, advocacy second, idealism last.

I'd make a distinction between understanding where your own self interest lies (which most people manage pretty well) and making policy that benefits society as a whole (where you need to understand economics). And I also lay the blame squarely with an overreaching government--if elected officials offer to sell favors, people are only rational to buy them.

And lastly, I would never critisize a corporate lawyer for not understanding his vocation as just that: a business first, advocacy second, and idealism last. But when their advocacy is *contrary* to their idealism it's clear they're not understanding something, and that something is how economics dictates the world works. Reducing the value of what artists have to sell through "moral rights" copyright ammendments can simply not help artists.