The Competitive Enterprise Institute Daily Update
Issues in the News
1. INTERNET
Microsoft faces a shareholder vote on its support for network neutrality legislation.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Technology Analyst Peter Suderman on why net neutrality regulations would be a loss for consumers:
“The government should not be allowed to force network owners into adopting static pricing schemes or mandated access rules. Keeping network owners from realizing the profit potential of their long-term investments will only result in fewer products and choices for everyone in the marketplace.”
2. LEGAL
The Ohio Supreme Court rejects the use of eminent domain to seize private property for commercial development.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Journalism Fellow Tim Carney, author of the new book, The Big Ripoff: How Big Business and Big Government Steal Your Money, on the court’s decision:
“The Ohio courts have realized that the government is not supposed to be a heavy-handed central planner of the economy. Let’s hope politicians and courts throughout the country agree.”
3. TECHNOLOGY
File-sharing network Kazaa reaches a legal settlement with copyright holders.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Adjunct Analyst James Plummer on how to expand the role of the market in protecting intellectual property rights:
“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.”
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