Innovation Policy Post

On Friday the Computer & Communications Industry Association's Executive Vice President Erika Mann wrote the French copyright enforcement authority, HADOPI, expressing concern about the unintended consequences of a software specification related to the country’s so-called “3 Strikes” law. 

HADOPI has asked stakeholders to comment by Oct. 30 on proposed technical characteristics of software that users could be directed toward when accused of infringement. The specification-compliant software would apparently monitor Internet connections, identify infringers, and possibly filter a user's Internet content. 

Were you planning to have some friends over to watch the first game of the World Series, or maybe Glee’s Rocky Horror episode?  Well, if you’re a Cablevision subscriber in New York, New Jersey, or Philadelphia, you may have to rethink those plans.  Cablevision customers in those markets have been without their respective Fox broadcast channels since midnight on Saturday, October 16. 

At Monday’s New America Foundation event, "The Internet’s Mid-Life Crisis," Tim Wu of Columbia University Law School previewed his upcoming book The Master Switch:  The Rise and Fall of Information Empires and called for a separation between Internet content and service providers. He said consumers are harmed when content and delivery become vertically integrated. 

The Technology Policy Institute reviewed major past antitrust cases before looking to the future and the potential for regulators to jump in on issues like cloud computing. Panelists at the Friday event, organized by the conservative think tank, discussed antitrust law and enforcement in the high-tech sector.

Tech policy lobbyists took the net neutrality debate to more neutral territory Thursday as they explained the issue and why it matters to business executives at a panel discussion in Tysons Corner.

Lisa Youngers of XO Communications gave a brief summary of the FCC initiatives in play from the National Broadband Plan to net neutrality rules to Title II classification of broadband telecommunications.

The nation's leading broadcasters are blocking TV episodes on their websites from playing on Google’s new web television service. The Wall Street Journal reports ABC, NBC and CBS have blocked those using the new Google set top boxes from accessing their networks’ shows. Fox so far is not blocking their programs from the new TV interface.

A day ahead of the FCC’s summit on wireless spectrum, several Obama officials spoke at a Brookings Institution event Wednesday about what to do about the looming spectrum shortage. The FCC is working to help free 300m megahertz of new wireless spectrum within the next five years, which is seen as a help. Many of the proposed reforms have been stalled both by resistance from incumbent stakeholders and by legitimate technical details to be engineered.

Phil Weiser, senior White House advisor on technology and innovation, noted that Smartphones are expected to outnumber regular cell phones by next year and video applications are placing tremendous demands on the wireless network.

Apple vs. HTC; Oracle vs. Google; Microsoft vs. Motorola; Nokia vs. Apple…. Where will the patent meltdown end? This didn’t happen with PCs. Why now?

These companies are not patent trolls. They are world class operating companies that should be competing in the marketplace with high-quality feature-rich products. Yes, they have accumulated huge patent portfolios, but that was supposed to be for defensive purposes -- in case they were attacked by aggressive patent holders.

On Oct. 8, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. Liu is a longtime democracy advocate and one of the authors of Charter 08, a manifesto calling for democratization and political reform in China. The Chinese government’s reaction to the news was to promptly delete it from search engines and microblogging sites.

CCIA has long opposed Internet censorship efforts by foreign governments as sabotaging what should be the greatest tool for freedom in the world. The Internet enables the widespread dissemination within a society of information and ideas that are the building blocks of democracy.

As the net neutrality debate drags on into another season, perhaps some historical “big picture” context is in order.

AT&T was broken up in the early 1980s under the terms of an antitrust court decree because it had anti-competitively blocked MCI, which was selling alternative long distance phone calling services using new wireless microwave links. By the late 1980s, the seven local Bell Telephone Companies wanted to escape the terms of the antitrust ruling and get back into the long distance and data transmission businesses where they could regain a competitive advantage over companies without legacy monopoly local networks connecting to homes and businesses.  They wanted the FCC rather than the antitrust court to be in charge. 

Members of the European Parliament are angered the European Commission has announced agreement on final language for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement – without revealing what’s in the latest draft of the secret, controversial document. Several members released a joint statement demanding the EC release the text of the international agreement that would add new policing measures on the Internet.

The European Parliament statement Tuesday comes days after the European Commission and other nations negotiating ton ACTA issued a statement saying they have reached an agreement in principle, according to news reports.