The New York Times Takes Our Name in Vain

Posted by Richard Bennett

At least they spelled our name right. The Price of Broadband Politics is the title of a New York Times editorial on the lobbying that’s taking place around broadband Internet regulation that sounds the usual cliche themes about money in politics: Comcast has spent more than $2 million on campaign donations; Verizon has given $1.2 [...]

Wrong Way

Posted by Richard Bennett

The FCC’s “Third Way” rhetoric is especially interesting to ITIF because the notion that a third way was needed is something ITIF president Rob Atkinson and current Obama advisor Phil Weiser introduced in a 2006 paper. The rhetoric of the third way doesn’t align with the use of a Title II classification, however, because Section [...]

FCC Regulates Internet, Film Here

Posted by Richard Bennett

News leaked out earlier today to the effect that the FCC has decided to pursue a Title II regulatory program for the Internet, treating it in effect as if it were a telephone network. Others have called this approach “the nuclear option,” but I think it’s less severe, more like the 9/11 attacks on New [...]

Speaking of privacy

Posted by Richard Bennett

I went to the FTC’s second privacy workshop yesterday in Berkeley, and found it a generally interesting and worthwhile event, although it did exhibit some of the familiar patterns. Privacy, like net neutrality, isn’t as much a coherent issue as a grab-bag of grievances about a number of loosely connected concerns. Privacy is even more [...]

Open Internet Rules

Posted by Richard Bennett

Incidentally, ITIF filed comments with the FCC in the Open Internet rule-making: The FCC should proceed with caution in conducting its inquiry into Open Internet rules, according to comments filed by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation today. All the evidence suggests that the Internet is thriving: network operators are investing and new applications, devices, [...]

Chairman Genachowski Goes to San Francisco

Posted by Richard Bennett

GigaOm sponsored a conversation with FCC Chairman Julius Genachowki at their Intergalactic Headquarters in San Francisco today. Watch live streaming video from gigaomtv at livestream.com I asked the net neutrality question toward the end, and applauded the Chairman for the way he’s transformed the FCC. Genachowski brought some of his best staffers with him, and [...]

FCC Broadband Deployment Research workshop

Posted by Richard Bennett

The long-awaited video of the FCC’s December 10 workshop Review and Discussion of Broadband Deployment Research is finally on-line. This workshop featured discussions of Yochai Benkler’s controversial Berkman Center report on unbundled DSL and Bob Atkinson’s report on current broadband investment dynamics in the US. As the FCC put it: As part of the Commission’s [...]

Blair Levin Hints at National Broadband Plan

Posted by Richard Bennett

Amy Schatz of the WSJ joined in the questioning of Blair Levin on this week’s installment of The Communicators. Here’s an interesting part of her story: Mr. Levin also dismissed criticisms last week from public interest groups unhappy the plan may not propose some ideas for encouraging competition, such as rules that would require Internet [...]

The Communicators on Piracy

Posted by Richard Bennett

Thursday’s edition of The Communicators on C-Span featured MPAA CEO Dan Glickman and Washington Internet Daily editor Greg Piper talking about digital piracy. There’s a segment beginning 9 minutes in on the recent ITIF report on stopping piracy. It’s very good to see people paying attention to the financial side of piracy. FacebookTwitterDiggItTechnoratiDel.icio.us

Steal These Policies

Posted by Richard Bennett

ITIF released a report today on digital piracy, Steal These Policies: Strategies for Reducing Digital Piracy co-authored by Dan Castro, Scott Andes, and yours truly. Here’s the blurb: It is time for the U.S. government to take global theft of U.S. intellectual property, especially digital content, much more seriously. A new ITIF report finds that [...]