If I produce and sell widgets in my widget shop, then nobody but me gets to decide how I make those widgets.

The government can come into my shop and order sixty thousand widgets built exactly the way they say they want them built, and it may be something that doesn't run afoul of any laws at all.

But that doesn't mean that I am required or compelled to build widgets their way -- or at all.

I'm free to tell them to fuck off.

The government can then find go someone else to build widgets to their specifications (or not; that's very distinctly not my problem).

And that’s what’s happening here. The government is telling Anthropic to fuck off and they are finding someone else

Actually, that is not what is happening here. What is happening here is that the govt is saying "Okay, we will not buy your widgets. Also, anyone who _does_ buy your widgets, regardless of what they are doing with them, we the government will not do any business with them." Which is waayyyy beyond just not buying widgets. That is outright retaliation and using your power to attempt to destroy a company.

... No?

The government signed a contract with Anthropic, then changed their minds and decided they don't like the terms of the agreement that they had already voluntarily signed, and then they designated Anthropic a supply chain risk.

It's like ordering a pizza to the Pentagon, and then saying "actually we made a mistake with our order; we want that pizza delivered to Venezuela, please do that". And then when Dominos politely says that's outside of their service area, you call them a threat to national security, say they're trying to dictate terms, and ban them from ever doing business with any of your vendors ever again.

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