Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
An interesting contrast to Tom Hazlett’s excellent article on Korean broadband (see Adam’s post below), comes from this week’s Economist magazine. “Europe’s coming leader in broadband is France,” the article proclaims, pointing out that French broadband growth was the highest in Europe last year. The piece credits France’s extensive unbundling regime (it has the second-largest [...]
Tom Hazlett has a nice piece on page A12 of the Wall Street Journal today explaining why South Korea is kicking everyone else’s butt when it comes to broadband connectivity and speed. Surprise, surprise, it comes down to their reliance on facilities-based competition instead of regulatory micromanagement. Hazlett notes that “Korea’s policy has proved a [...]
There’s a whiff of the bizarre in the FCC’s new unbundling decision (see Wayne’s excellent post below). Let’s recap: in 1999, the Supreme Court threw out the FCC’s first stab at unbundling rules. The Commission changed them slightly, but the DC Circuit threw these out in 2002. The FCC’s third try was also thrown out [...]
CNet News is reporting that the another chapter has been added to the ongoing saga between Yahoo and French regulators over what can be viewed or sold over online networks. You may remember that several years ago the French got angry because some knuckleheads were selling Nazi memorabilia over the Net via Yahoo’s site. Consequently, [...]
Last Friday the FCC quietly released the interim rule on unbundling and UNE-P pricing, claiming that if they failed to act, the $127 billion local telecommunications market would be placed at risk. Yet it’s not clear how the interim rule calms this market. The rule extends the current UNE-P price freeze for six months, which [...]
Today at a conference in Aspen, FCC Chairman Michael Powell made some thoughtful comments including this one: “VOIP is the killer app for legal policy change.” What he meant is that the technology forces regulators to see “telephone service” in an entirely new light. Let’s just hope policymakers are smart enough to see that convergence [...]
Along with William Landes, the stunningly prolific Richard Posner is the author of a marvelous new book on “The Economic Structure of Intellectual Property Law.” Posner, who is guest blogging this week over on the Lessig Blog is one of the great legal minds of our generation and everything he has to say is worth [...]
That’s the question one online casino (Casino City, Inc.) is asking a federal district court to answer. Page C3 of today’s New York Times features an interesting story about the case, which Casino City filed in response to Department of Justice threats against publishers and broadcasters warning them to not print or display ads for [...]
Hard to believe that there are still so many regimes on this planet trying to clamp down on freedom of speech, especially in an age of ubiquitous electronic communications. But this editorial by Nir Boms and Erick Stakelbeck reminds us that some countries will stop at nothing to restrict the flow of information. In particular, [...]
State Public Utilities Commission meetings are usually fairly boring affairs, but at last Thursday’s CPUC meeting, I was surprised to see a packed room and grand theatrics over UNE-P rates in California. I know what you’re thinking–didn’t a DC Appeals Court invalidate the UNE-P regs? Well, yes, but California is going ahead anyway as everyone [...]
May 16, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
