• TechCrunch, Monday, July 26, 2010 12:50 PM

New York State Governor David Paterson just signed a bill outlawing the use of private dwellings as makeshift hotels. In faux rant style, TechCrunch's Paul Carr considers the bill's likely impact on open "extra space" marketplace Airbnb.com, which basically helps people turn their private dwellings into makeshift hotels. While Carr concedes that the legislation was spearheaded by hotel lobbyists, he notes an explicit exemption in the bill that allows for the letting of rooms in private dwellings if the owner is present (as is often the case in AirBnB lets).

Also, State Senator and bill sponsor Liz Krueger made it clear that "the city is not going to knock on doors." Bigger picture, Carr questions the popular notion that all "disruption" facilitated by new (digital) services and technology is a pure virtue. "Commentators ... and entrepreneurs ... are so enraptured by the cult of 'Disruption' -- that any use of the Internet to circumvent the traditional way of doing things is inherently good -- that they can't help but see the new law as The Man standing in the way of Progress."

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