Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
Last Thursday I shared my thoughts in two short (<5 min) RussiaToday interviews on on President Obama’s big speech about NASA and his long-overdue cancellation of NASA’s white elephant known as “Ares I” rocket. (See Jeff Foust’s analysis here and here.) I was sorry to see the Administration decide to preserve the Orion capsule as a lifeboat [...]
It’s intended as a cute line, but the opener of Stephanie Clifford’s New York Times story about custom coupons is packed with ideological assumptions: “For decades, shoppers have taken advantage of coupons. Now, the coupons are taking advantage of the shoppers.” Meta-data in printed coupons can reveal much about the people using them. Here’s a [...]
Over at Convergences I consider the writings of Polk Wagner, beginning thus: Polk Wagner has written some worthwhile papers on law and technology. I heartily recommend those that support points on which we agree, such as The Perfect Storm: Intellectual Property and Public Values, 73 Fordham L. Rev. 1107. 2005. This paper notes how the [...]
Why many regulatory economists have such a strong visceral reaction against regulating broadband under Title II of the Communications Act.
Please join us for this Progress & Freedom Foundation luncheon briefing today at 12-2 pm in the Capitol Visitor Center, Room SVC 208/209 at E Capitol St NE & 1st St NE. I’ll be moderating a discussion of the growing powers of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and what it might mean for consumers, advertisers, media creators, [...]
Years ago, when I worked on Capitol Hill, a colleague invited me to attend a meeting with some university professors who had a new idea for regulation of the telecommunications sector. “Bits,” they said. “All regulation should center on bits.” With convergence on IP-based communications, the regulatory silos dominating telecommunications would soon be more than anachronistic. [...]
TechLawJournal has a thorough analysis of Justice John Paul Stevens’ opinions in technology-related areas. I reproduce it here with permission. (Tim Lee’s shorter Cato@Liberty post about Justice Stevens’ legacy in tech is here.) Justice John Paul Stevens, who has served on the Supreme Court since 1975, announced on April 9, 2010, that he will retire [...]
It’s April 15, so hopefully nobody’s waiting in long lines at the post office (though we think you should be using the Internet to file electronically). Unfortunately, it’s only April but already it has been a taxing year for online commerce. We’ve seen six tax-related categories of bills that have been introduced in state legislatures [...]
My colleague Barbara Esbin, Director of PFF’s Center for Communications and Competition Policy, was recently asked to participate in a conference call to discuss the D.C. Circuit’s recent decision in Comcast v. FCC and its impact on the FCC’s Open Internet (“Net neutrality”) rulemaking proceeding. Yesterday, over at the PFF Blog, she published her working [...]
As I’ve mentioned here previously, PFF has been rolling out a new series of essays examining proposals that would have the government play a greater role in sustaining struggling media enterprises, “saving journalism,” or promoting more “public interest” content. We’re releasing these as we get ready to submit a big filing in the FCC’s “Future [...]
January 27, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
