The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
TRADE
Australia helps lead attempts to revive the WTO’s Doha Round trade talks.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Scholar Fran Smith on the likelihood of such talks resuming.
“Farmers in the U.S. (and elsewhere) want subsidies for everything – and they want to keep their support programs and import restrictions intact. Don’t hold your breath that unilateral action will catch on quickly, but it’s still worth a try.”
FREE SPEECH
Major television networks prepare to take the FCC to court over indecency fines.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology director Clyde Wayne Crews on the myriad problems with giving the FCC too much power.
“Congress must consider these broad market developments and act in tailored ways that change communications law and reforms the agency that administers it. First, it should establish clear boundaries as to whether an area of communications should be regulated by federal or state governments. Additionally, Congress must restrict the role of the FCC in future communications regulation.”
HEALTH & SAFETY
A California jury rules that Vioxx manufacturer Merck is not liable for a man’s health condition.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on the lessons to be learned from previous Vioxx cases.
“An Atlantic City jury concluded Thursday that Vioxx did not cause Humeston’s September 2001 heart attack, and that New Jersey pharmaceutical company Merck in no way misrepresented Vioxx’s safety risks. Humeston took the drug for just seven weeks, and there’s no evidence at all that Vioxx caused him any harm. A similar lack of evidence didn’t prevent a Texas jury from awarding the widow of another Vioxx user $253 million in a case decided in August, however.”
TECHNOLOGY
Google to serve ads to XM radio.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology director Clyde Wayne Crews on how the FCC wants to regulate XM’s technology.
“In the extraordinarily complex debate over copy protection and intellectual property rights, efforts to ban devices capable of sound recording and playback are not new. Many new recording technologies, like the VCR, have been fought. Yet in a sense, we don’t have an intellectual property problem, we have a compulsory licensing problem. The recording industry must honor compulsory licenses that allow broadcasters to distribute content for regulated fees, engendering endless he said/she said fights over whether the proper government-set licensing fee was paid.”
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