Adam Thierer's Blog, page 173

Hey, Remember 2008′s Neutrality Debate?

Back in 2008 I wrote a lot about the kerfuffle that surrounded Google's "OpenEdge" program, which was seen as an affront to net neutrality. Here's a couple of the better posts on the topic:

Google's Internet "Fast Lane"

Google's OpenEdge Could Dramatically Reduce Google's Impact on the Internet's Core

That debate seems pretty similar to today's, in that the issue was largely misunderstood, overreactions were plentiful, and semi-socialist nonsense about the Net belonging to "the people" was...

Net Neutrality, Banned Business Models & Price Controls

I continue to be mystified by the contention of some Net neutrality advocates that it is not a form of economic regulation.  The reality, of course, is that Net neutrality would ban business models and necessitate price controls. If that ain't regulation, I don't know what is.  As Robert Litan and Hal Singer note in their new Harvard Business Review essay, "Why Business Should Oppose Net Neutrality," "Non-discrimination under the FCC's net neutrality proposal means that ISPs cannot offer...

Google's Schmidt on Targeted Ads, Monetization & the Future of News

Wall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins has a terrific, wide-ranging interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt in today's paper that is well worth reading. One thing worth highlighting is Schmidt's comments on the "economic disaster that is the American newspaper."  He argues that, "The only way the problem [of insufficient revenue for news gathering:] is going to be solved is by increasing monetization, and the only way I know of to increase monetization is through targeted ads."

Absolutely ...

Net Neutrality Pledge Week

The release of a joint policy framework from Google and Verizon this week touched off even more activity in the never-ending saga of Net Neutrality than the rumors about the possibility such an agreement was in the works did the week before.

Op-ed pages, business and technology news programs, and public radio's precious moments were overrun with anxious talking heads denouncing or praising the latest developments, or even a few of us trying just to explain what was and was not actually being s...

Who Cares about Broadband?

The folks at the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project came out with another installment of their "Home Broadband" survey yesterday. This one, Home Broadband 2010, finds that "adoption of broadband Internet access slowed dramatically over the last year." "Most demographic groups experienced flat-to-modest broadband adoption growth over the last year," it reports, although there was 22% growth in broadband adoption by African-Americans.  But the takeaway from the survey that i...

Our CNET Column: "Just say no to Ma Bell-era Net neutrality regulation"

CNET has just run the guest column, "Just say no to Ma Bell-era Net neutrality regulation," Adam Thierer and I wrote in response to "Just say no to fake Net neutrality" by Derek Turner (of Free Press), which decried the win-win-win compromise suggested by Amazon's Paul Misener, just as Free Press has more recently denounced the compromise proposed by Google and Verizon.

We make a few key points:

History demonstrates the dangers of regulatory capture, and the costs to consumers of regulation...

The Free Press / Public Knowledge Stylebook for Public Debate

[I'm always amazed by the misuse of language in debates over media and communications policy. Some regulatory advocates, like Free Press and Public Knowledge, seem to contort the meaning of everyday words in such a grotesque way that they are barely recognizable.  Luckily, via Wikileaks, Mike Wendy and I stumbled upon a secret copy of the "Free Press-Public Knowledge Stylebook for Public Debate" and now have a better idea of what they mean when they utter these terms. We thought we'd...

Chat about Cyberlaw & Tech Policy Books with Tim Lee and Me

Are you a tech policy geek who just can't get enough Internet policy & cyberlaw books in your life?  Alternatively, would you just like to hear two such geeks talk about some of the most important tech policy books out there so you don't have to read them yourself?!

Either way, you might want to join TLF-alum Tim Lee and me for a book chat over at his blog on Wednesday night at 9:00 pm EST.  Tim is experimenting with a new tool that his brother has developed called Envolve, which allows...

Deconstructing the Google-Verizon Framework

I've just published a long analysis for CNET of the proposed legislative framework presented yesterday by Google and Verizon.

The proposal has generated howls of anguish from the usual suspects (see Cecilia Kang, "Silicon Valley criticizes Google-Verizon accord" in The Washington Post; Matthew Lasar's "Google-Verizon NN Pact Riddled with Loopholes" on Ars Technica and Marguerite Reardon's "Net neutrality crusaders slam Verizon, Google" at CNET for a sampling of the vitriol).

But after going...

Birgitta Jónsdóttir on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative

This week on the podcast, Birgitta Jónsdóttir, Member of the Icelandic Parliament for the Movement party, and one of the chief sponsors of the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative, discusses the initiative.  She explains how it was crafted, who it would protect and how, and Wikileaks' influence on it.  Jónsdóttir specifically discusses the proposal's impact on journalists, sources, whistleblowers, libel tourism, superinjunctions, freedom of information, prior restraint, and government...