September 2005

• "Small Businesses Wary of Telecommunications Bill," eWeek, September 26, 2005.
  "In the view of Tom Tauke, former congressman from Iowa and top lobbyist for Verizon, Congress should leave competition to the marketplace and follow the cable model in considering broadband services. 'The draft shows that the government-knows-best mentality is still among us,' Tauke said. Speaking last week at a forum sponsored by The Progress & Freedom Foundation, in Washington, he said that an unspecified provision on network build-out requirements will create difficulties for new providers entering a market."
• "Clashing High-Tech Titans," National Journal, September 24, 2005.
  "The two industries are spending a lot of lobbying money as this tit-for-tat escalates. 'There is the danger of a holy war breaking out over these franchise issues,' says Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a free-market-oriented think tank based in Washington."
• "Is the FCC Free From Partisan Politics?," National Journal, September 24, 2005.
  "Congress wanted nonpolitical, nonpartisan experts to run the FCC, which was created in 1934, explained Randolph J. May, senior fellow at the free-market-oriented Progress and Freedom Foundation. 'The reality never matched the ideal,' he said."
• "No 'Net Neutrality' Laws Needed, Panel Says," Information Week, September 23, 2005.
  "These issues were batted back and forth at 'Net Neutrality or Net Neutering in a Post-Brand X World,' an event sponsored by the D.C.-based Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF). Most of the seven-person panel expressed little faith in the federal government to effectively regulate high-speed Internet access, while encouraging robust competition, maximum innovation and effective investment as an alternative to codified 'freedoms.'"
• "FCC Urged to Change its Role," PC World, September 22, 2005.
  "The goal of PFF's policy forum was to address the so-called Net neutrality principles, a set of guidelines endorsed by the FCC that would allow broadband customers to have access to any content, attach any device and run any application on the network, as long as the customer was acting legally and was not harming the network."
• "Verizon Critical of Draft Telecom Bill, Says FCC Should Enforce, Not Write Rules," BNA, Regulation and Law, September 22, 2005
  "There are several specific problems with the video provisions of the draft telecommunications bill circulated by the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but more broadly, the whole concept of telecommunications regulation should be revised, Thomas Tauke, executive vice president of public affairs, policy, and communications at Verizon, said Sept. 21."
  "'It's about how the rules of the game are set--and who sets the rules,' Tauke told a conference hosted by the Progress and Freedom Foundation. 'What we need instead of 'anticipatory regulation' is a market-driven approach.'"
• "Telcos Criticize Barton Bill's Franchising Provisions," Washington Internet Daily, September 22, 2005.
  "Parts of the draft threaten to 'deny consumers of many of the benefits that today's technology and marketplace can deliver,' Verizon Exec. Vp Tom Tauke said Wed. at a Progress & Freedom Foundation conference. One passage essentially would mandate a redesign of the set- top box for Verizon's FiOS video service that launches today (Thurs.), he said."
• "Telecom Experts Differ Over 'Network Neutrality,'" TechDaily, September 21, 2005.
  "Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn was the only one of six panelists at an event hosted by the Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) who called for a firm 'net neutrality' principle in proposed telecom legislation."
  "Sohn's differences with Verizon and Intel were not as great as with the cable industry, which adamantly opposes net neutrality, and with PFF Senior Fellow Adam Thierer, who said price discrimination is economically efficient and should be encouraged."
• "Verizon Signs Disney Content Deal, To Start Video," Washington Post.com, September 21, 2005.
  "Verizon's new service, known as Fios, will use high-speed, fiber-optic lines. The company plans to make Fios available to 3 million customer homes this year."
  "'Verizon will formally flip the switch on our Fios TV service delivering a rich video experience to consumers,' Verizon Executive Vice President Tom Tauke said at a forum sponsored by the Progress and Freedom Foundation."
• "Historic Worthington Offers Wireless Internet," The Columbus Dispatch, September 17, 2005.
  "Some people have questioned the potential liability to cities that sponsor such networks. Computer hackers more readily use Internet providers where they can be anonymous than those where they can be tracked, said Kent Lassman, a research fellow at the Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Progress and Freedom Foundation."
  "'As communities step closer toward being the owner and provider of the community network, the risk of liability increases,' he said."
• "Analysts Predict Year-Long Battle on Broadband Legislation," TR Daily, September 16, 2005.
  "Randolph May, director-communications policy studies at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, which is working on model telecom legislation in its Digital Age Communications Act project, warned in a blog against the dangers of attempting 'to define a new regulatory category based on a techno-functional construct [that] might well be outrun by new technology developments.' He recommended a market-oriented approach like that adopted by the DACA project."
  "Mr. May also expressed concern about provisions in the bill that would authorize the FCC to reject broadband service providers' registration statements if it deemed the offering would harm consumers. 'This language seems to give the FCC far too much discretion to reject service offerings that would... benefit consumers.' The net-neutrality provisions, he added, might impede efficiencies from tailoring and specialization of new services. He called for requiring demonstrable and nontransitory market failure before the FCC could intervene in interconnection disputes. He called 'disappointing' the retention of various Communications Act Title VI "content-type" cable system requirements."
• "House Committee Floats Broadband Bill," Network World, September 15, 2005.
  "The wide-ranging draft bill -- advanced by Committee Chairman Joe Barton (R-Texas), top-ranking committee Democrat John Dingell (D-Mich.) and other senior committee members -- addresses a number of broadband-related issues that have generated debate in recent months. The draft is 'generally deregulatory in thrust, and that is commendable,' Randy May, a senior fellow at conservative think tank the Progress and Freedom Foundation, wrote on his Web log Thursday."
• "A Cordless New Wave of Distribution," The Hilltop, September 14, 2005.
  "'As a music company, we understand that our ultimate success lies not in preventing people from getting what they want, but in providing it to them in new and exciting ways,' Chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group Edgar Bronfman, Jr. said in a speech at a policy summit for the Progress and Freedom Foundation in Aspen."
• "Broadband-Over-Powerline Gets Texas, California Boosts," Telecom Policy Report, September 13, 2005.
  "The Texas bill also could benefit BPL because it asks state regulators to study more efficient collection and distribution of monies under the universal service fund (USF) program. The Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) recently pointed out that the state regulatory commission would be asked to look for USF improvements, and service providers in the most expensive and remote areas of Texas would be free to use any technology - BPL, wireless or satellite - that could provide consumers with basic phone service at a lower cost. "
• "Music, Tech Industries Closer To Singing Duet," Investor's Business Daily, September 8, 2005.
  "'In the blink of an eye, business models and platforms were turned upside down, creating an atmosphere of fear and mistrust between content and technology,' said Bronfman last month at a meeting of the Progress & Freedom Foundation think tank."
  "More than 200 million songs were legally downloaded worldwide in 2004, a tenfold increase from 2003, says the Digital Economy Fact Book by the Progress & Freedom Foundation. It says 140 million of those downloads were from the U.S., up from 20 million."
• "Congress Looks to Pass Data Breach Law," InfoWorld Netherlands, September 6, 2005.
  "While Congress seems to be headed to a breach notification law sooner or later, some groups question whether such a law would actually benefit consumers. In most cases of credit card fraud, customers are responsible for US$50 or less, noted Tom Lenard, research director of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank. In the end, the cost of a breach notification law to companies, which pass their costs on to consumers, may be larger than the benefit, he said."
• "PFF Paper Asserts Declining Stock Prices of Media Companies Belies Media Monopoly Arguments," Tech Law Journal, September 2, 2005.
  "The Progress and Freedom Foundation (PFF) released a paper titled "Testing "Media Monopoly" Claims: A Look at What Markets Say". The authors are Adam Thierer (PFF) and Daniel English. They argue that the proponents of government limitations on media ownership engage in sloppy competition analysis. They also offer their own evidence of increasing competition in the media marketplace -- declining market capitalizations of major media companies."
• "Governance Gauge -- Data Law: Misdirected or Misdirection?" Intelligence Enterprise, September 1, 2005.
  "Economist Paul H. Rubin analyzes the costs and benefits to businesses and consumers of mandating disclosure of data breaches, in a paper for The Progress & Freedom Foundation. His analysis is representative of the typical objections to the bill before the Senate. The cost to consumers of identity theft, Rubin writes, is one tenth the cost businesses bear to remedy the fraud. "