This article originally appeared at techfreedom.org.
Today, TechFreedom joined a coalition of over 40 organizations from across the country in urging Senate leadership to permanently ban taxes on Internet access. In a letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Harry Reid, the coalition voiced support for a permanent extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), which bans states and localities from imposing Internet access taxes and discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce. The bill is currently embedded in H.R. 644, the Trade Facilitation and Enforcement Act.
The letter reads:
After decades of progress in connecting more Americans to the Internet, the lack of a permanent ban on Internet access taxes could reverse this progress. Numerous studies continue to show that cost remains an obstacle to Internet access and, if taxes on the Internet go up, even fewer people will be able to afford to go online. This would impede our nation’s long held goal of universal Internet access.
“Americans’ broadband bills shouldn’t be used as bargaining chips by Senators who want to impose online sales taxes,” said Tom Struble, Policy Counsel at TechFreedom. “For 17 years, the Internet access tax ban has helped encourage broadband adoption and investment. If Senators want an online sales tax, then pass it on the merits — but handcuffing a broadband tax with sales tax is irresponsible. Consumers are already facing the prospect of higher bills, as the FCC is likely to soon impose universal service fees on broadband as part of its Title II regime imposed in the name of ‘net neutrality.’ Let’s not make that problem worse. The Senate should act quickly to end the uncertainty and pass permanent, Internet tax freedom.”
People are excited about online TV getting big in 2016. Alon Maor of Qwilt predicts in Multichannel News that this will be “the year of the skinny bundle.” Wired echoes that sentiment. The Wall Street Journal’s Geoffrey A. Fowler said, “it’s no longer the technology that holds back cable cutting–it’s the lawyers.”
Well, I’m here to say, lawyers can’t take all the blame. In my experience, it’s the technology, too. Some of the problem is that most discussion about the future of online TV and cable cutting fails to distinguish streaming video-on-demand (SVOD) and streaming linear TV (“linear” means continuous pre-programmed and live “channels”, often with commercials, much like traditional cable). Continue reading →
This article was originally posted on techfreedom.org
On January 11, TechFreedom joined nearly 200 organizations, companies, and experts from more than 40 countries in urging world leaders to support strong encryption and to reject any law, policy, or mandate that would undermine digital security. In France, India, the U.K, China, the U.S., and beyond, governments are considering legislation and other proposals that would undermine strong encryption. The letter is now open to public support and is hosted at https://www.SecureTheInternet.org.
The letter concludes:
Strong encryption and the secure tools and systems that rely on it are critical to improving cybersecurity, fostering the digital economy, and protecting users. Our continued ability to leverage the internet for global growth and prosperity and as a tool for organizers and activists requires the ability and the right to communicate privately and securely through trustworthy networks.
“There’s no middle ground on encryption,” said Tom Struble, Policy Counsel at TechFreedom. “You either have encryption or you don’t. Any vulnerability imposed for government use can be exploited by those who seek to do harm. Privacy in communications means governments must not ban or restrict access to encryption, or mandate or otherwise pressure companies to implement backdoors or other security vulnerabilities into their products.”
For tech policy progressives, 2015 was a great year. After a decade of campaigning, network neutrality advocates finally got the Federal Communications Commission to codify regulations that require Internet service providers to treat all traffic the same as it crosses the network and is delivered to customers.
Yet the rapid way broadband business models, always tenuous to begin with, are being overhauled, may throw some damp linens on their party. More powerful smart phones, the huge uptick in Internet streaming and improved WiFi technology are just three factors driving this shift.
As regulatory mechanisms lag market trends in general, they can’t help but be upended along with the industry they aim to govern. Looking ahead to the coming year, the consequences of 2015’s regulatory activism will create some difficult situations for the FCC.
Continue reading →
This article originally appeared at techfreedom.org
Yesterday, the FTC reiterated its age-old formula: there are benefits, there are risks, and here are some recommendations on what we regard as best practices. The report summarizes the workshop the agency held in October 2014, “Big Data: A Tool for Inclusion or Exclusion?”
Commissioner Ohlhausen issued a separate statement, saying the report gave “undue credence to hypothetical harms” and failed to “consider the powerful forces of economics and free-market competition,” which might avoid some of the hypothetical harms in the report.
“The FTC is essentially saying, ‘there are clear benefits to Big Data and there may also be risks, but we have no idea how large they are,’” said Berin Szoka. “That’s not surprising, given that not a single economist participated in the FTC’s Big Data workshop. The report repeats a litany of ‘mights,’ ‘concerns’ and ‘worries’ but few concrete examples of harm from Big Data analysis — and no actual analysis. Thus, it does little to advance understanding of how to address real Big Data harms without inadvertently chilling forms of ‘discrimination’ that actually help underserved and minority populations.”
“Most notably,” continued Szoka, “the report makes much of a single news piece suggesting that Staples charged higher prices online to customers who lived farther away from a Staples store — which was cherry-picked precisely because it’s so hard to find examples where price discrimination results in higher prices for poor consumers. The report does not mention the obvious response: if consumers are shopping online anyway, comparison shopping is easy. So why would we think this would be an effective strategy for profit-maximizing firms?”
“The FTC can do a lot better than this,” concluded Szoka. “The agency has an entire Bureau of Economics, which the Bureau of Consumer Protection stubbornly refuses to involve in its work — presumably out of the misguided notion that economic analysis is somehow anti-consumer. That’s dead wrong. As with previous FTC reports since 2009, this one’s ‘recommendations’ will have essentially regulatory effect. Moreover, the report announces that the FTC will bring Section 5 enforcement actions against Big Data companies that have ‘reason to know’ that their customers will use their analysis tools ‘for discriminatory purposes.’ That sounds uncontroversial, but all Big Data involves ‘discrimination’; the real issue is harmful discrimination, and that’s not going to be easy for Big Data platforms to assess. This kind of vague intermediary liability will likely deter Big Data innovations that could actually help consumers — like more flexible credit scoring.”
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.