Keeping politicians' hands off the Net & everything else related to technology
[Cross posted at TechFreedom.org] It’s hard to believe TechFreedom launched just last January. As we begin 2012, let me share with you the mantra that continues to guide our work: “Technology expands the capacity to choose; and it denies the potential of this revolution if we assume the Government is best positioned to make these [...]
By Geoffrey Manne and Berin Szoka Back in September, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee held a hearing on “The Power of Google: Serving Consumers or Threatening Competition?” Given the harsh questioning from the Subcommittee’s Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) and Ranking Member Mike Lee (R-UT), no one should have been surprised by the letter they [...]
Today, AT&T announced they had abandoned their planned acquisition of T-Mobile after the DOJ sued to block the deal and the FCC published a report sharply critical of the deal. The following statement can be attributed to TechFreedom Fellows Larry Downes, Geoffrey Manne and Berin Szoka: Nearly two years ago, the Obama FCC declared a [...]
Yesterday, TechFreedom, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, Americans for Job Security, and Americans for Limited Goverment sent a joint letter (pdf) to U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith and Ranking Member John Conyers urging them not to rush deliberations on the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The Committee is set to hold markup on the bill on Thursday, [...]
I just released the following statement regarding Facebook’s settlement with the Federal Trade Commission of complaintsover changes the company made in December 2009 to what information would appear on users’ profiles: For years, many privacy advocates have insisted that holding companies to their own privacy policies won’t protect consumers because companies can change those policies at a whim. [...]
I spoke at the MSU/Quello Center’s “Governance of Social Media” workshop on November 11. My talk runs 21 minutes and starts at 1:16:54 in this video. The Q&A begins at 1:41:00. My presentation follows below.
I just posted the following comment in response to Scott Cleland’s piece on Forbes: Why Anti-Piracy Legislation Will Become Law. Scott, have you read my colleague Larry Downes dissection of SOPA over on CNET? The problem isn’t that the bill is too hard on pirates, but that trying to punish piracy in such a crude and [...]
Yesterday, President Barack Obama announced two nominations to the Federal Communications Commission: Jessica Rosenworcel, replacing Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps, and Ajit Pai, replacing Republican Commissioner Meredith Attwell Baker. The FCC faces a unique challenge: Because it regulates the communications industry, essentially every rule it issues implicates the free speech values at the heart of our [...]
TechFreedom is calling on all Americans to stand up for their digital Fourth Amendment rights. The Constitution delicately balances privacy with the needs of law enforcement by making judges responsible for determining whether law enforcement has established ‘probable cause.’ This judicial warrant requirement has always been the crown jewel of our civil rights. Our Founding Fathers would be appalled to learn [...]
While policymakers rush write new Net regulations to protect privacy, we keep suggesting the FTC use its existing authority more effectively to punish unfair and deceptive trade practices. The FTC has just sued FrostWire for designing their peer-to-peer software to trick users into oversharing: FrostWire for Android… was likely to cause a significant number of consumers installing and running [...]
May 22, 2012
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
