Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
In a blog ealier this month, I mentioned how uneasy I was about municipal governments turning broadband or wi-fi into the next public utility, like local sewer or water service. There are many risks associated with such schemes, not the least of which is the potential for taxpayer bailouts when things go wrong. Anyway, I [...]
CEI filed comments today in response to a Federal Trade Commission request for comment about email authentication. The FTC will be holding a summit on November 9-10 about what authentication schemes will help the spam problem. The FTC, in its Federal Register notice, characterizes the summit as a “first step” towards “an active role in [...]
Just a heads up on a new Heritage Foundation study on the Bush Administration’s record on regulation. The study covers regulatory policy broadly–including, but not limited to, tech. The bottom line: Bush as done relatively well in limiting adoption of new regulations, but needs to do more to reduce the burden of existing regulations. Interestingly, [...]
AP is reporting that Diebold touchscreen voting machines similar to those used in Maryland were found abandoned recently on a street and in a bar in Baltimore. I’ve long had some doubts about the wisdom of electronic voting but hey, if I can use them while sitting on a barstool and downing a beer then [...]
Today’s National Journal Technology Daily (subscriber-only website) contains a very interesting People Section column by Sarah Lai Stirland entitled “Washington’s Silicon Square.” Stirland notes that, “California has its Silicon Valley, Boston has its Silicon Corridor and Scotland has its Silicon Glen. Now some lobbyists in Washington, D.C., are starting to refer to the downtown area [...]
The Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing today on media ownership regulation and I was invited to testify. Here’s the link to my testimony. All the charts and tables you will see in the appendix of my testimony will appear in my forthcoming book “Media Myths: Making Sense of the Debate over Media Ownership.” I [...]
Need something to celebrate? The web just fended off another attempt at regulatory choking, this time by activists trying to impose on websites the “reasonable accommodation” requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). You can thank Access Now v. Southwest Airlines, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 20060 (11th Cir., Sept. 24, 2004) [PDF format], for [...]
Pricing goods and services that are rapidly becoming commoditized presents a challenge to sellers. How to differentiate your product vis a vis competitors? Often this involves bundling, but can take on many different forms of price differentiation schemes enforceable by contract law. Most people, including most regulators, have no clue about how hard it is [...]
May 24, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
