Cell Phone Fees, Energy Policy and Child Porn Online

The Federal Communications Commission holds a hearing to investigate “termination fees” for customers who cancel their cell phone, cable or Internet contracts early.

Amid concerns over high gas prices, Senators abandon legislation to mandate greenhouse gas reductions.

Major Internet service providers sign an agreement with the New York Attorney General’s office over newsgroups that alleged contained child pornography.

1. TECHNOLOGY

The Federal Communications Commission holds a hearing to investigate “termination fees” for customers who cancel their cell phone, cable or Internet contracts early.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Policy Analyst Cord Blomquist on what many customers get for signing up for a long-term contract:

“In the case of mobile phones, many companies provide customers with low-cost or even free phones in return for customers agreeing to a service contract, often of one to two years. That agreement puts better phones in the hands of customers at every price level, while bringing into the market many who could otherwise not afford a phone at all.”

 

2. ENERGY

Amid concerns over high gas prices, Senators abandon legislation to mandate greenhouse gas reductions.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Iain Murray on what to expect from the next round of energy legislation:

“The collapse last week of the Lieberman-Warner bill, the enviro-Left’s attempt to bribe Senators to impose energy rationing on the nation, shows that we are now left with only two energy-policy choices: We can adopt fudging issues as a policy, which will achieve nothing, hurt many, and satisfy no one; or we can pursue a free-market policy that will anger green activists and alarmists but actually do some good. Chances are that fudge is on the menu.”

 

3. LEGAL

Major Internet service providers sign an agreement with the New York Attorney General’s office over newsgroups that alleged contained child pornography.

CEI Expert Available to Comment: Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on why the deal wasn’t as “voluntary” as advertised:

“But in truth, the settlement blocking access to newsgroups is not really ‘voluntary.’ It’s the coercive result of threats of litigation from the New York Attorney General’s office. Supposedly ‘voluntary’ settlements can constitute government regulation that violates the constitution. The Supreme Court has said that even a State’s ‘contractual condition’ is subject to constitutional scrutiny, and federal appeals courts have observed that the fact that a state official and a business ‘have entered into an agreement does not necessarily insulate it from scrutiny under’ the Constitution.”