Adam Thierer, Brent Skorup
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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.
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Adam Thierer
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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.
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Adam Thierer
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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.
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Sean Lawson
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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.
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Eli Dourado
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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.
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Adam Thierer, Brent Skorup
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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, 2013Federal Aviation Administration: Unmanned Aircraft System Test Site Program
Jerry Brito, Eli Dourado, Adam Thierer | Apr 23, 2013Public Interest Comment on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule
Adam Thierer | Dec 22, 2011Public Interest Comment on the Connect America Fund
Jerry Brito, Jerry Ellig | Apr 15, 2011Transparency Through Technology: Evaluating Federal Open Government Efforts
Jerry Brito | Mar 09, 2011Cyber Security Certification Program
Jerry Brito, Tate Watkins | Jul 12, 2010