After investigating Google’s search practices for almost two years, the Federal Trade Commission and its staff undoubtedly wanted more than the few voluntary modifications to which Google has agreed. But the Commission demonstrated its professionalism by concluding that the evidence did not support bringing an antitrust case and that no additional remedy was likely to benefit consumers.
Press Releases
LightSquared License Modification Should be Approved
In comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission, Technology Policy Institute President Thomas Lenard recommends the agency approve LightSquared’s license modification request in order to hasten deployment of its mobile broadband network. Having already made significant investments, LightSquared remains the most immediate prospect for becoming a viable competitor in the mobile broadband space, particularly for underserved areas.
Immigration Reform Is a Painless Way to Reduce the Deficit
In his post-election acceptance speech, President Obama said “fixing our immigration system” would be one of the first items on his legislative agenda and “we need to seize the moment”. But the president and the congress face a more immediate task: backing away from the “fiscal cliff” and coming up with a plan to avoid the $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts scheduled to kick in starting January 1. Easing immigration restrictions for high-skilled workers can help achieve that objective.
The FTC and Privacy: We Don’t Need No Stinking Data
“The privacy debate is taking place in an empirical vacuum,” state Thomas Lenard and Paul Rubin in “The FTC and Privacy: We Don’t Need No Stinking Data” published in The Antitrust Source, a journal of the American Bar Association. The article evaluates two recent Federal Trade Commission privacy reports and concludes that they suffer from a lack of data and analysis and therefore “are seriously deficient as a foundation for new policy recommendations.”
Register Now for the TPI Aspen Forum, August 19-21
The Technology Policy Institute’s 2012 Aspen Forum is set to convene in just over a week, on Sunday August 19th and concluding Tuesday, August 21st. Keynote speakers at the 2012 Aspen Forum include Philip Falcone, Chief Executive Officer of Harbinger Capital Partners; Erik Brynjolfsson from MIT; The Wall Street Journal’s Gordon Crovitz; Google’s General Counsel, Kent Walker; Jon Summers, Senior Vice President, Applications and Service Infrastructure for AT&T; and author Andrew Keen. Just added to the agenda is Tim Westergren, Chief Strategy Officer and Founder of Pandora.
Aspen Forum Panel: Antitrust and Internet Competition
As the Internet has grown, antitrust enforcement in the internet sector has become a priority in both the United States and Europe. In order to best serve consumers’ interests, antitrust policy in this dynamic sector needs to be based on an accurate understanding of how the competitive process works. Participants in the panel “Internet Competition: Implications for Antitrust” at the Technology Policy Institute’s 2012 Aspen Forum will discuss this issue generally and assess the record of antitrust enforcement against high tech and internet-based companies. Online registration for the Aspen Forum can be performed on the TPI website.
Privacy “Multistakeholder” Approach to be Examined at Aspen Forum
Earlier this year, the White House and the Federal Trade Commission released major privacy reports endorsing a multistakeholder process to develop voluntary codes of conduct as well as legislation to augment self-regulatory efforts. Panelists for the session “Multistakeholder Processes for Privacy: Regulation, Self-Regulation or Markets” at the Technology Policy Institute’s 2012 Aspen Forum will discuss these reports as well as efforts by the Department of Commerce and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to implement some of the reports’ recommendations. In addition, the panelists will discuss FTC enforcement under its existing authority. The session will be moderated by Thomas Lenard, President and Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute.
Aspen Forum Sessions Explore Internet Policy
Two panel discussions at the Technology Policy Institute’s 2012 Aspen Forum will cover an array of forthcoming national and international internet policy issues. The panels will feature U.S. and foreign government officials and public policy experts from a range of Internet corporations. The Aspen Forum is scheduled for August 19 – 21.