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There are few things I find more annoying in the Net neutrality wars than the silly assertion by groups like Free Press and other regulatory radicals that “Net neutrality is the Internet’s First Amendment.”  It’s utter rubbish as I have documented here many times before.  But now Sen. Al Franken is running around sputtering such [...]

I’ve just released a new PFF white paper looking at the hysteria that has often accompanied major media mergers and then taking a look at the marketplace reality years after the fact.  Here‘s the PDF, but I have also pasted the entire thing down below. _____________________________ A Brief History of Media Merger Hysteria: From AOL-Time [...]

WAR IS PEACE FREEDOM IS SLAVERY IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH So declared the Party in George Orwell’s classic novel 1984. The corruption of language with a constant theme of Orwell’s work, most notably his 1946 essay “Politics and the English Language.” So Orwell would not have been surprised to see the term “Internet Freedom” captured by those who [...]

Just before the New Year, Mike Masnick reported: It’s been well over five years since we first heard about a plan in Oregon to attach GPS devices to cars and tax drivers based on how much they drove and the idea hasn’t become any better in the intervening years… but apparently it’s still being pushed. Oregon’s governor is trying [...]

The Progress & Freedom Foundation has just launched the new Center for Internet Freedom.  CIF offers an alternative to the proliferation of advocacy groups calling for government intervention online by offering timely analyses and critiques of proposals that diminish the vital role of free markets, free speech and property rights.  We aim to drive the Internet policy [...]

By Berin Szoka & Adam Thierer Progress Snapshot 4.19 (PDF) Since the fall of 2008, a debate has raged in Washington over “targeted online advertising,” an ominous-sounding shorthand for the customization of Internet ads to match the interests of users.  Not only are these ads more relevant and therefore less annoying to Internet users than [...]

By Berin Szoka & Adam Thierer As we noted in our intro to this ongoing series, Google’s tenth anniversary has passed with Googlephobia reaching new heights of hysteria. But is Google really too big and dangerous, or are people just too lazy to find other alternatives to each of the wonderful services that Google offers?  [...]

Googlephobia: The Series

by on September 11, 2008 · 7 comments

By Berin Szoka & Adam Thierer as part of an ongoing series With Google celebrating its 10th anniversary this week, many panicky pundits are using the occasion to claim that Google has become the Great “Satan” of the Internet.  Nick Carr wonders what the future holds for “The OmniGoogle.” The normally level-headed Mike Malone worries [...]