Innovation Policy Post

Yesterday, a bipartisan group of House members introduced H.R. 3086, the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act.  The bill would make permanent the moratorium on new state and local Internet access taxes and on multiple or discriminatory taxation of e-commerce.  Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) are to be commended for taking action to promote continued broadband adoption and to ensure the future development and success of e-commerce and the digital economy.

The FCC Open Internet rule is about consumer and end user access to everything Americans want on the Internet.   It is not about big edge providers’ access to any particular end users.  Verizon has successfully twisted this case upside down as if edge providers like Google and Facebook and Netflix were the only customers that matter.   While online platforms both large and small are enterprise broadband customers of Verizon and other telecoms, consumer and business end users purchase their own Internet access connections from Verizon or AT&T or their cable provider.  And it is these broadband Internet access customers that the FCC open Internet rule is designed to protect in the public, not private, interest.

Those in the know that have followed the debate on net neutrality in the European Union and the US for years will know that net neutrality is on trial again in both regions: yesterday, in the US, a federal court heard Verizon’s challenge to the FCC order and in the EU the European Commission is expected to adopt a regulation on telecommunications this week, including (we hope) provisions on net neutrality.

Last week, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) introduced the Digital Goods and Services Tax Fairness Act of 2013.  The bill would establish a national framework for how state and local taxes apply to digital goods and digital services so as to prevent multiple and discriminatory taxation.  Sen. Wyden and Sen. Thune have shown a keen understanding of the value of innovation and the need to promote electronic commerce in introducing legislation that would provide tax certainty and fairness for digital goods and services.  

As Congress examines electronic surveillance and privacy issues in the wake of the NSA revelations, we are pleased that increasingly members on both sides of the aisle are realizing what is at stake in this issue, and voiced support this week for preserving the freedoms our founding fathers envisioned.

CCIA appreciates the opportunity to have participated in the multistakeholder process convened by the Administration, and supports closing debate on this Code of Conduct today for mobile transparency. While any such process is by no means perfect, and there are provisions that we might have approached differently, we recognize and celebrate the hard work done and compromises made to get to this point. 

The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet of the House Judiciary Committee  has announced two upcoming hearings on copyright, to continue the “House Judiciary Committee’s ongoing review of U.S. copyright law.”  The first will be on Thursday, July 25, entitled “Innovation in America: The Role of Copyrights.”  The date of the second has not been announced yet, but the announcement says it will also be held before the upcoming August recess.  Chairman Goodlatte and Subcommittee Chairman Coble also released a statement announcing the hearing, which suggests that the second hearing will be on technology, to complement the first hearing on copyright:  “The copyright and technology sectors are core parts of our nation’s economy.  They are the job-creating engine that can help rebuild our economy.  Over the next several weeks, the Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet Subcommittee will hold two hearings that will focus on the important role that both the copyright and technology industries play in our nation. We look forward to hearing from all of the witnesses.”

What benefits can developing countries expect from cloud computing? And what policies are needed to fully seize its potential?

Several questions were discussed at a peer review of the upcoming cloud computing report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). It will be part of the Information Economy Report series - UNCTAD’s yearly flagship publication that analyses current trends and policy issues in the digital economy and their effect on trade and development. 

Yesterday, the Open Technology Institute at the New America Foundation put on an event: Safeguarding Human Rights in Times of Surveillance. The event featured a round table with Rebecca Mackinnon, an NAF senior research fellow, Cynthia Wong, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, and Carolina Rossini, the Latin American Resource Center Director at NAF. Frank La Rue, the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom and Expression at the UN, was the main speaker. La Rue and the round table discussed the impact of the PRISM and metadata collection leaks on human rights. Although rights discourse was the primary focus of the event, speakers often spoke from a business angle, and addressed issues relevant to CCIA stances. 

With Senate passage late last month of the Border Security, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Modernization Act, the focus of the immigration reform effort has shifted to the House of Representatives.  While some supporters of reform called for the House to take up the Senate bill and pass it swiftly, that was never really a plausible option.  The House is a coequal chamber of Congress and it would consider the immigration issue in its own way.  The hope is that the path the House takes will ultimately result in legislation that can be signed into law by the President.  

At a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing Thursday on “Improving the FCC Process,” lawmakers discussed the reintroduction of H.R. 3309 and H.R. 3310, which would change various FCC processes.  The bill passed the House last year only to die in the Senate.  

In Europe, distrust of our superpower status and surveillance programs may be smoldering hotter than the western regions of our country right now.  Transatlantic trade negotiators are presumably taking this week off anyway.  But next week, European and U.S. negotiators will hopefully resume talks.   Then the annual transatlantic week in Washington starts July 15^th.