Tech Policy

Research

Uncreative Destruction: The Misguided War on Vertical Integration in the Information Economy Adam Thierer, Brent Skorup \| Apr 01, 2013 Are information sectors sufficiently different from other sectors of the economy such that more stringent antitrust standards should be applied to them preemptively? Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu responds in the affirmative in his book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. Wu proposes preventing vertical mergers in the information economy and the mandatory divestiture of vertically integrated companies. To implement this, Wu proposes a Separations Principle for the information economy, which would segregate information providers into three buckets, which we have labeled information creators, information distributors, and hardware makers.	The Pursuit of Privacy in a World Where Information Control Is Failing Adam Thierer \| Mar 18, 2013 This Article—which focuses not on privacy rights against the government, but against private actors—cuts against the grain of much modern privacy scholarship by suggesting that expanded regulation is not the most constructive way to go about ensuring greater online privacy.
Technopanics, Threat Inflation, and the Danger of an Information Technology Precautionary Principle Adam Thierer \| Jan 25, 2013 This paper will consider the structure of fear appeal arguments in technology policy debates and then outline how those arguments can be deconstructed and refuted in both cultural and economic contexts. Several examples of fear appeal arguments will be offered with a particular focus on online child safety, digital privacy, and cybersecurity. The various factors contributing to “fear cycles” in these policy areas will be documented.	Beyond Cyber-Doom: Assessing the Limits of Hypothetical Scenarios in the Framing of Cyber-Threats Sean Lawson \| Dec 19, 2012 Cybersecurity proponents often rely upon cyber-doom scenarios as a key tactic for calling attention to prospective cyber-threats. This essay critically examines cyber-doom scenarios by placing them into a larger historical context, assessing how realistic they are, and drawing out the policy implications of relying upon such tales. It draws from relevant research in the history of technology, military history, and disaster sociology to examine some of the key assertions and assumptions of cyber-doom scenarios. It argues that cyber-doom scenarios are the latest manifestation of fears about “technology-out-of-control” in Western societies, that they are unrealistic, and that they encourage the adoption of counter-productive, even dangerous policies. The paper concludes by offering alternative principles for the formulation of cybersecurity policy.
Do High International Telecom Rates Buy Telecom Sector Growth? Eli Dourado \| Nov 30, 2012 The possible extension of the telephone system’s “sender-pays” rule to the Internet is a contentious international political issue under consideration at the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT). This paper examines whether higher international telephone rates support or impede telecom sector growth in the receiving country. It uses data on international telephone rates from the US from 1992-2010 to explain growth in foreign telecom sectors during the same period.	Uncreative Destruction: The Misguided War on Vertical Integration in the Information Economy Adam Thierer, Brent Skorup \| Oct 16, 2012 We argue that the antitrust harms Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu fears are not present, and we highlight scholarship on the accepted benefits of vertically integrated firms. We show that Wu's remedies are policy preferences wrapped in the language of competition law. In fact, the information economy is largely competitive and does not warrant interventionist regulatory enforcement. Since much of American economic vitality flows from the information economy and technology, policymakers should reject a radical antitrust remedy like Wu’s preemptive Separations Principle.

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Testimony & Comments

A Status Update on the Development of Voluntary Do-Not-Track Standards Adam Thierer \| Apr 24, 2013 Even if Do Not Track takes root and some consumers turn it on, many will be incentivized by ad networks or publishers to opt right back in to “tracking” to retain access to sites and services they desire. In doing so, they may end up sharing even more information than they do today. Moreover, this may drive still greater consolidation since larger players will be in a position to grant Internet-wide opt-in exceptions, while smaller providers cannot…	Federal Aviation Administration: Unmanned Aircraft System Test Site Program Jerry Brito, Eli Dourado, Adam Thierer \| Apr 23, 2013 In analyzing the proposed policies being developed to carry out Congress’s mandate, it is important to remember that the purpose of the mandate is to open America’s skies to commercial UAS use in order to reap the social benefits that such use will bring.
Public Interest Comment on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule Adam Thierer \| Dec 22, 2011 In this public interest comment to the Federal Trade Commission, Adam Thierer addresses how the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) affects online content and digital innovation.	Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund Jerry Brito, Jerry Ellig \| Apr 15, 2011 Jerry Brito and Jerry Ellig submitted a Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund.
Transparency Through Technology: Evaluating Federal Open Government Efforts Jerry Brito \| Mar 09, 2011 Jerry Brito testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations, and Procurement Reform on open government and government transparency through technology.	Cyber Security Certification Program Jerry Brito, Tate Watkins \| Jul 12, 2010 The notice of inquiry seeks comment on whether a cyber security certification program “would create business incentives for providers of communications services to sustain a high level of cyber…

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Research Summaries & Toolkits

Mercatus Center Policy Guide

| Aug 03, 2012

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University is pleased to provide you with our new policy guide. The guide is designed to provide easily accessible economic information that might prove useful in pre- paring for hearings or town hall meetings, drafting speeches or policy papers, and generally educating the public regarding spending, taxes, regulation, financial markets, and technology policy.

Video Marketplace Deregulation: The Battle Over Spectrum Policy and Retransmission Consent Reform

Adam Thierer | Jun 19, 2012

Even as viewing options multiply from new sources, America’s traditional video marketplace—broadcast television, cable TV, and satellite TV—remains encumbered with many layers of federal regulation. This prevents a truly free market in video programming from developing and simultaneously threatens to extend old regulations to new online platforms and services.

The Promise and Limits of E-Rulemaking

Jerry Brito | Dec 08, 2010

Government should focus on finishing the first step toward the promise of e-rulemaking—greater online transparency—so that it can then experiment with technologies to harness the wisdom of the crowd.

Online Privacy Regulation

Adam Thierer | Dec 06, 2010

Online privacy regulation could fundamentally alter the nature of online commerce and the future of how digital content and services are provided.

Speeches & Presentations

Smart Regulation and Competition Policy in Electric and Telecommunications Markets Jerry Ellig \| Jan 14, 2010 Jerry Ellig participated in panel discussion before Texas policy makers in Austin, Texas at the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Policy Orientation on the future of the Texas Public Utility…	Regulation and High Reliability Organizations Jerry Ellig \| May 28, 2009 Jerry Ellig presents before the Department of Energy, Office of Health, Safety and Security in the Visiting Speakers Program about regulation in high reliability organizations, such as…
Economics as a Guide to Telecom Reform Jerry Ellig \| Jan 22, 2009 Jerry Ellig presents at a Heartland Institute conference about Ohio telecommunications policy. Dr. Ellig discusses the role of consumer welfare in telecom policy.

Expert Commentary

The Top 3 Things I Learned at the Bitcoin Conference Reason By Jerry Brito \| May 22, 2013 This past weekend I attended the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose, where over one thousand enthusiasts, developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and, yes, lawyers gathered to chart the future of the virtual currency. Here are the top three things I learned at the conference.	Five Reasons to Keep Government Out of Internet Governance U.S. News and World Report By Eli Dourado \| May 13, 2013 Starting on May 14, the International Telecommunication Union – an agency of the United Nations – is kicking off a meeting for governments and telecom companies to discuss "international Internet-related public policy matters." Up for debate are six draft opinions on various aspects of Internet policy, but the unifying question is: how much should governments (and intergovernmental organizations) involve themselves in the building and running of the Internet? Under the current system, governments do very little – and the Internet has flourished because of it.
Craigslist Takes Upstart Competitors to Court Reason By Jerry Brito \| May 06, 2013 By billing itself as a public service, Craigslist certainly put itself in a position to be at the short end of the PR stick now that it’s acting like it cares about its market dominance. Despite this hypocrisy, and despite the fact it’s using some bad legal theories to advance its claims, we shouldn’t give up on the healthy notion that if others want to displace Craigslist, they should do so by building their own user base. It’s the least one can expect from an innovator.	There's Nothing Fair About an Internet Sales Tax U.S. News and World Report By Nita Ghei \| May 06, 2013 Just a few years ago, retail giant Amazon primarily stood on the sidelines of the debate over federal legislation – dubbed the Main Street Fairness Act – to require online retailers to collect sales taxes. But now Amazon is front and center supporting the current iteration of the bill wending its way through Congress. Amazon's support aside, the tax revenues that states may be able to extract would be far dwarfed by the damage the legislation inflicts on growth, innovation and competition, and by further entrenching cronyism in our already troubled economy.
A Net Skeptic's Conservative Manifesto Reason By Adam Thierer \| Apr 27, 2013 Evgeny Morozov’s latest book, To Save Everything, Click Here, follows the same blueprint as his first book, 2011’s The Net Delusion. He takes the over-zealous ramblings of a handful of Internet evangelists, suggests that Pollyannas like them are all around us, and then argues, implausibly, that their very ideas threaten to undermine our culture or humanity in some fashion. Along the way, he doles out generous heapings of unremitting, snarky scorn.	How Government Regulations Distort the Television Airwaves Reason By Jerry Brito \| Apr 26, 2013 Of all the distortionary federal regulations in existence, few are more patently inefficient and convoluted than those governing the television airwaves. Aereo, a new startup backed by media mogul Barry Diller, is looking to blow it all up.

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Charts

Deregulation Works: Monthly Mobile Phone Bills Hold Steady While Capital Investment Increasing

The data presented in this chart suggest that calls for more aggressive regulation of the wireless sector are unwarranted and would likely have a deleterious impact on consumer welfare.

Experts

Jerry Brito

Jerry Brito is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center and directs the Technology Policy Program. His primary research interests are technology and telecommunications policy, government transparency and accountability, and the regulatory process.

Eli Dourado

Eli Dourado is a research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University with the Technology Policy Program.

Jerry Ellig

Jerry Ellig is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. His primary research interests include the federal regulatory process, economic regulation, and telecommunications regulation.

Adam Thierer

Adam Thierer is a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University with the Technology Policy Program. His primary research interests are technology, media, Internet, and free speech policy issues, with a particular focus on online child safety and digital privacy policy issues.

Videos

Veronique de Rugy Discusses the Internet, Taxing and "Fairness" on The Blaze

Veronique de Rugy | April 22, 2013

Jerry Brito Discusses Bitcoin on Huffpost Live

Jerry Brito | April 12, 2013

Podcasts

Gina Keating on netflix

Jerry Brito | May 21, 2013

Gina Keating, author of Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America’s Eyeballs, discusses the startup of Netflix and their competition with Blockbuster. Keating begins with the history of the company and their innovative improvements to the movie rental experience. She discusses their use of new technology and marketing strategies in DVD rental, which inspired Blockbuster to adapt to the changing market. Keating goes on to describe Netflix’s transition to internet streaming and Blockbuster’s attempts to retain their market share.

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Recent Events

The U.N. and the Internet: Previewing the World Conference on International Telecommunication

Please join the Mercatus Center for a panel discussion on the upcoming World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT). Once in a generation, governments from around the world gather to revise the International Telecommunication Regulations, a UN-sponsored treaty that governs international telecom practices.

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Books

Copyright Unbalanced: From Incentive to Excess

Jerry Brito | Nov 30, 2012

Copyright Unbalanced is not a moral case for or against copyright; it is a pragmatic look at the excesses of the present copyright regime and of proposals to expand it further. It is a call for reform—to roll back the expansions and reinstate the limits that the Constitution’s framers placed on copyright.

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More Media Clippings

Uncreative Destruction: The Misguided War on Vertical Integration in the Information Economy Adam Thierer, Brent Skorup \| Apr 01, 2013 Are information sectors sufficiently different from other sectors of the economy such that more stringent antitrust standards should be applied to them preemptively? Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu responds in the affirmative in his book The Master Switch: The Rise and Fall of Information Empires. Wu proposes preventing vertical mergers in the information economy and the mandatory divestiture of vertically integrated companies. To implement this, Wu proposes a Separations Principle for the information economy, which would segregate information providers into three buckets, which we have labeled information creators, information distributors, and hardware makers.	The Pursuit of Privacy in a World Where Information Control Is Failing Adam Thierer \| Mar 18, 2013 This Article—which focuses not on privacy rights against the government, but against private actors—cuts against the grain of much modern privacy scholarship by suggesting that expanded regulation is not the most constructive way to go about ensuring greater online privacy.
Technopanics, Threat Inflation, and the Danger of an Information Technology Precautionary Principle Adam Thierer \| Jan 25, 2013 This paper will consider the structure of fear appeal arguments in technology policy debates and then outline how those arguments can be deconstructed and refuted in both cultural and economic contexts. Several examples of fear appeal arguments will be offered with a particular focus on online child safety, digital privacy, and cybersecurity. The various factors contributing to “fear cycles” in these policy areas will be documented.	Beyond Cyber-Doom: Assessing the Limits of Hypothetical Scenarios in the Framing of Cyber-Threats Sean Lawson \| Dec 19, 2012 Cybersecurity proponents often rely upon cyber-doom scenarios as a key tactic for calling attention to prospective cyber-threats. This essay critically examines cyber-doom scenarios by placing them into a larger historical context, assessing how realistic they are, and drawing out the policy implications of relying upon such tales. It draws from relevant research in the history of technology, military history, and disaster sociology to examine some of the key assertions and assumptions of cyber-doom scenarios. It argues that cyber-doom scenarios are the latest manifestation of fears about “technology-out-of-control” in Western societies, that they are unrealistic, and that they encourage the adoption of counter-productive, even dangerous policies. The paper concludes by offering alternative principles for the formulation of cybersecurity policy.
Do High International Telecom Rates Buy Telecom Sector Growth? Eli Dourado \| Nov 30, 2012 The possible extension of the telephone system’s “sender-pays” rule to the Internet is a contentious international political issue under consideration at the World Conference on International Telecommunication (WCIT). This paper examines whether higher international telephone rates support or impede telecom sector growth in the receiving country. It uses data on international telephone rates from the US from 1992-2010 to explain growth in foreign telecom sectors during the same period.	Uncreative Destruction: The Misguided War on Vertical Integration in the Information Economy Adam Thierer, Brent Skorup \| Oct 16, 2012 We argue that the antitrust harms Columbia Law Professor Tim Wu fears are not present, and we highlight scholarship on the accepted benefits of vertically integrated firms. We show that Wu's remedies are policy preferences wrapped in the language of competition law. In fact, the information economy is largely competitive and does not warrant interventionist regulatory enforcement. Since much of American economic vitality flows from the information economy and technology, policymakers should reject a radical antitrust remedy like Wu’s preemptive Separations Principle.

A Status Update on the Development of Voluntary Do-Not-Track Standards Adam Thierer \| Apr 24, 2013 Even if Do Not Track takes root and some consumers turn it on, many will be incentivized by ad networks or publishers to opt right back in to “tracking” to retain access to sites and services they desire. In doing so, they may end up sharing even more information than they do today. Moreover, this may drive still greater consolidation since larger players will be in a position to grant Internet-wide opt-in exceptions, while smaller providers cannot…	Federal Aviation Administration: Unmanned Aircraft System Test Site Program Jerry Brito, Eli Dourado, Adam Thierer \| Apr 23, 2013 In analyzing the proposed policies being developed to carry out Congress’s mandate, it is important to remember that the purpose of the mandate is to open America’s skies to commercial UAS use in order to reap the social benefits that such use will bring.
Public Interest Comment on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule Adam Thierer \| Dec 22, 2011 In this public interest comment to the Federal Trade Commission, Adam Thierer addresses how the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) affects online content and digital innovation.	Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund Jerry Brito, Jerry Ellig \| Apr 15, 2011 Jerry Brito and Jerry Ellig submitted a Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund.
Transparency Through Technology: Evaluating Federal Open Government Efforts Jerry Brito \| Mar 09, 2011 Jerry Brito testified before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Technology, Information Policy, Intergovernmental Relations, and Procurement Reform on open government and government transparency through technology.	Cyber Security Certification Program Jerry Brito, Tate Watkins \| Jul 12, 2010 The notice of inquiry seeks comment on whether a cyber security certification program “would create business incentives for providers of communications services to sustain a high level of cyber…

The Top 3 Things I Learned at the Bitcoin Conference Reason By Jerry Brito \| May 22, 2013 This past weekend I attended the Bitcoin 2013 conference in San Jose, where over one thousand enthusiasts, developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and, yes, lawyers gathered to chart the future of the virtual currency. Here are the top three things I learned at the conference.	Five Reasons to Keep Government Out of Internet Governance U.S. News and World Report By Eli Dourado \| May 13, 2013 Starting on May 14, the International Telecommunication Union – an agency of the United Nations – is kicking off a meeting for governments and telecom companies to discuss "international Internet-related public policy matters." Up for debate are six draft opinions on various aspects of Internet policy, but the unifying question is: how much should governments (and intergovernmental organizations) involve themselves in the building and running of the Internet? Under the current system, governments do very little – and the Internet has flourished because of it.
Craigslist Takes Upstart Competitors to Court Reason By Jerry Brito \| May 06, 2013 By billing itself as a public service, Craigslist certainly put itself in a position to be at the short end of the PR stick now that it’s acting like it cares about its market dominance. Despite this hypocrisy, and despite the fact it’s using some bad legal theories to advance its claims, we shouldn’t give up on the healthy notion that if others want to displace Craigslist, they should do so by building their own user base. It’s the least one can expect from an innovator.	There's Nothing Fair About an Internet Sales Tax U.S. News and World Report By Nita Ghei \| May 06, 2013 Just a few years ago, retail giant Amazon primarily stood on the sidelines of the debate over federal legislation – dubbed the Main Street Fairness Act – to require online retailers to collect sales taxes. But now Amazon is front and center supporting the current iteration of the bill wending its way through Congress. Amazon's support aside, the tax revenues that states may be able to extract would be far dwarfed by the damage the legislation inflicts on growth, innovation and competition, and by further entrenching cronyism in our already troubled economy.
A Net Skeptic's Conservative Manifesto Reason By Adam Thierer \| Apr 27, 2013 Evgeny Morozov’s latest book, To Save Everything, Click Here, follows the same blueprint as his first book, 2011’s The Net Delusion. He takes the over-zealous ramblings of a handful of Internet evangelists, suggests that Pollyannas like them are all around us, and then argues, implausibly, that their very ideas threaten to undermine our culture or humanity in some fashion. Along the way, he doles out generous heapings of unremitting, snarky scorn.	How Government Regulations Distort the Television Airwaves Reason By Jerry Brito \| Apr 26, 2013 Of all the distortionary federal regulations in existence, few are more patently inefficient and convoluted than those governing the television airwaves. Aereo, a new startup backed by media mogul Barry Diller, is looking to blow it all up.