The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
FINANCIAL REGULATION
A U.S. District Court hears arguments in the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Free Enterprise Fund’s constitutional legal challenge to the Sarbanes-Oxley board that oversees companies’ accounting procedures.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Center for Entrepreneurship Director John Berlau and Special Projects Counsel Hans Bader on why the PCAOB is unconstitutional.
“The PCAOB is responsible for a mountain of red tape, and its broad interpretation of Sarbanes-Oxley’s rules on what constitutes a company’s “internal controls” is costing the U.S. economy billions of dollars every year. But there is a different yet related reason that the PCAOB is problematic. The structure and method of appointing its members clearly violates the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Disregarding the Constitution’s bedrock principle of separation of powers, Congress gave the power to appoint the members of the PCAOB not to the President, but to the five members of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This method of appointment violates the Appointments Clause in numerous ways.”
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Sony to compensate customers whose computers were harmed by CDs loaded with anti-piracy software.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar James Plummer on how markets can help protect intellectual property.
“The rapid progression of technology and, concomitantly, consumer attitudes and behavior, poses problems for the content industries’ dominant paradigms and business models as configured today. Enforcement costs for protection of old models—encouraged and calcified by congressional expansion of the length of copyright terms—are mounting. Some rights holders are now developing promising new business models that recognize these realities. To encourage this trend, lawmakers should consider dismantling regulatory barriers—particularly antitrust—obstructing the development of potentially superior alternatives to legal copyright protection.”
CABLE FRANCHISING
FCC reforms cable franchise requirements.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Braden Cox on problems with previous franchise regulations:
“The current, but outdated, franchise regulations were designed for a monopoly environment. New entrants to these markets are stymied not by technology or lack of consumer interest, but rather by the requirement to negotiate franchise agreements in more than 33,000 municipalities across the country.”