Whether it is lifting net neutrality regulations, allowing AI to reach its full potential to benefit mankind, educating policy makers about content moderation, clearing legacy regulations at the Federal Communications Commission, advocating for greater spectrum efficiency, or defending business practices that benefit consumers but are disliked by antitrust enforcers, CEI punches above its weight. Coalition activity, relationships with tech and telecom journalists, media appearances, policy events, Capitol Hill outreach, op-eds, and in-depth studies combine to make CEI influential in the tech and telecom policy area.
Tech and Telecom Issue Areas
Featured Posts
Blog
Free the Economy podcast: Technology and society with Will Rinehart
In this week’s episode we cover nuclear radiation, luxury handbags, rent control in Maryland, net neutrality, and fighting malaria…
Blog
Subsidy-free capitalism may require a constitutional amendment
Automobiles, electrification, ample consumer goods and mass marketing, a construction boom, and access to credit helped fuel the Roaring Twenties of a century ago.
Wall Street Journal
‘Net Neutrality’ Faces a Stiff Judicial Test
The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday along partisan lines to reclassify broadband internet access service as a common carrier telecommunications service under Title II of…
Search Posts
Blog
Losing the Universe with LOST
The Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) has been languishing in the Senate for decades, but led by Massachusetts senator John Kerry, there is growing…
Citation
Norquist, Conservative Groups Petition FCC in Favor of Latest Verizon Deal
From Josh Peterson’s Daily Caller article: “Demand for wireless broadband is more than doubling annually, but vast swaths of valuable spectrum — the…
Blog
Tapping Space Resources
Over at The Washington Times, Bob Zubrin says that we need space property rights. Gee, I wonder…
Blog
Cut The Budget By Cutting Republican Sacred Space Cows
Over at Forbes, Cato’s Doug Bandow says that the Republicans need to lead by example: Presumptive Republican Party nominee Mitt Romney…
Citation
Former FCC Official Takes Stance Against FCC’s Possible 4G LTE Technology Mandate
From Josh Peterson’s article in The Daily Caller: Fred Campbell, director of the Communications Liberty and Innovation Project — a new project by…
Comment
CEI’s CLIP Submits Comments Before the FCC on 700 MHz Interoperability
Full Document Available in PDF The Communications Liberty and Innovation Project submits these comments…
Blog
New Space Property Rights Criticism
Over at the Space and Cyberlaw blog, Eric Dawson takes issue with my issue analysis on space…
News Release
Competitive Enterprise Institute Launches Program to Advance Innovation in Telecommunications
Washington, D.C., June 1, 2012 – Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) launched the Communications Liberty and Innovation Project (CLIP), a program of…
News Release
CLIP Takes Bold Stance Against FCC Technology Mandate
WASHINGTON, D.C, June 1, 2012 – Fred Campbell, Director of the Communications Liberty and Innovation Project (CLIP) at the Competitive Enterprise Institute,…
Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor: ‘Modest’ Doesn’t Describe the CISPA
Your editorial "Who's Afraid of #CISPA?" (May 21) rightly argues that facilitating voluntary information sharing is a vastly superior approach to bolstering America's cyber defenses…
Blog
If Only All Policemen were Leroy Jethro Gibbs
As a fan of NCIS, I’m quite aware of the government's ability to track the location of individuals through their cell phones. One of the…
Blog
Classic Obfuscation: The New America Foundation’s Search for the “Public Interest”
Milton Friedman once quipped that “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program.” Perhaps he would add the outmoded idea of the “public interest”…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 24, 2012: Driverless Cars
A prototype driverless car made by Google recently made the rounds in Washington, DC, and Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner got to take…
Tech News World
Apple, Samsung Chiefs Pick Up Their Marbles and Go Home
From Erika Morphy's article in E-Commerce Times: Judges will often order two sides to try mediation before a legal action, Ryan Radia, an…
Blog
A Fit of Sanity on ITAR
Over at Space Politics, Jeff Foust reports that the House has passed a bill allowing the administration to remove satellites from…
Blog
The Future of Automobility Is (Almost) Here: Google’s Self-Driving Car
[caption id="attachment_55209" align="alignleft" width="350" caption="CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in the Google car. (Photo by Marc Scribner)"][/caption] This morning,…
Forbes
Comcast’s Puny Data Cap Increase
From Timothy B. Lee's op-ed on Forbes: Ryan Radia wants to know what I think of Comcast’s announcement that it’s raising…
Blog
The Constellation Empire Strikes Back
Constellation, the Bush administration's plan to return to the moon, was canceled a couple years ago. But not all of Constellation was canceled. The Orion…
Blog
FCC Delays Threaten to Hurt Wireless Consumers
America’s communications regulatory regime is broken. Case in point: prior government approval is needed for what should be a run of the mill marketplace transaction.
Letters
Coalition Letter on Cyber Security Act of 2012
Full Document Available in PDF We, the undersigned organizations, write to express our deep concerns with S. 2105, the Cyber…
Blog
Republican Space Socialism Update
Last time we checked in on this topic, House Appropriations Chairman Frank Wolf (R-Virginia) was decrying the wastefulness of competition. Well,…
Blog
The Remote Sensing Problem
Over at the Washington Post, in discussing the coming crisis in weathersats, the editorial board can't resist taking an ignorant dig…
Blog
When Commodities Analysts Should Stick To Commodities
Some analysts at Barclays attempt to understand the business case for Planetary Resources, and massively fail: Their…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 26, 2012: The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)
Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia goes over CISPA's privacy problems and discusses the bill's political prospects.
Daily Caller
Internet Bill Could Allow DHS to Spy on Congress, Supreme Court
From Josh Peterson's article on The Daily Caller: “Ryan Radia, associate director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank…
Daily Caller
How a Cybersecurity Protection Bill Might Differ From CISPA
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on “CISPA,” the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act this week. Whatever advocates’ frustrations, it’s not clear…
News Release
CEI Urges Members to Vote No on CISPA
Washington, D.C., April 26, 2012 — Tomorrow, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on final passage of H.R. 3523, the Cyber Intelligence…
Daily Caller
Proposed CISPA Amendments Do Little to Appease Critics
From Declan McCullagh’s article in CNET: A fourth amendment, also from Jackson Lee, would extend CISPA by allowing Homeland Security to “intercept”…
Blog
A Bad Week For Shuttlyndra Supporters
Two serious blows were struck against the Senate Launch System this week, though based on previous behavior, when knocked down by…
CNET
CISPA Revision Allows DHS Internet ‘Countermeasures’
From Declan McCullagh's article on CNET: Ryan Radia, associate director of technology studies at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank that…
Reason
Building a 21st Century FDA
From Ronald Bailey's article in Reason: Delaying access to new drugs kills people. As Competitive Enterprise Institute general counsel Sam Kazman has…
Reason
Conservative Groups Slam House Cybersecurity Bill
From Brendan Sasso’s article in The Hill: Six leading conservative groups urged Congress to re-work the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)…
News Release
Free Market Coalition: Amend CISPA to Preserve Freedom, Prevent Gov’t Overreach
Washington, D.C., April 21, 2012 — The House of Representatives is expected to vote next week on the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act…
Letters
Free Market Coalition Letter on CISPA
Full Document Available in PDF As public interest groups dedicated to free enterprise and limited government, we applaud bipartisan congressional efforts to…
Orange County Register
DOJ Hungry for a Bite of Apple Inc.
From an Orange County Register editorial: "You could actually say that Apple is bringing more competition to the market, not less," through its…
Blog
The Space Property Rights Discussion Continues
As I (sort of) predicted last week, Tanja Masson-Zwaan, president of the International Institute of Space Law, has weighed in on…
Blog
CEI Podcast for April 12, 2012: Apple, E-Books, and Antitrust
Yesterday the Justice Department sued Apple and five major publishers over their e-book pricing model, alleging price fixing. Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia…
Blog
Modernity is Amazing
A man separated from his family 25 years ago as a small child used Google Earth and Facebook to find them and reunite.
Investors
Apple Investors Shrug Off E-Book Antitrust Lawsuit
From Patrick Seitz' article in Investor's Business Daily: The Competitive Enterprise Institute said the Justice Department made a mistake in taking legal action…
Blog
A Free Market Defense of Retransmission Consent
Unshackling a market from obsolete, protectionist regulations can be a very challenging undertaking, especially when the lifeblood of a regulated industry is at stake. The…
Blog
One Small Step for Human Spaceflight
The International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) have been a thorn in the American space industry’s side for almost fourteen years, ever since Congress moved…
Investors
Why Is Apple Getting Cored in Washington?
What should be the price of the paperless word, now that books are going digital in one of the most important transformations in history? Steve…
News Release
Justice Department Should Drop Apple Lawsuit
Washington, D.C., April 11, 2012—The Justice Department sued Apple and several publishers today, alleging the firms colluded over e-book pricing. CEI policy experts Wayne…
Blog
Further Space Property Rights Responses
Since my previous post on media reaction to CEI's press briefing on Thursday, Popular Science has provided a…
Blog
Initial Media Reactions to CEI’s Space Property Rights Paper
On Monday, CEI published an Issue Analysis on a possible new approach to establishing private real estate off planet under the…
Blog
Live Streaming at 11:00 AM EDT — Securing Property Rights in Space
On Thursday, April 5, the Competitive Enterprise Institute will host a Capitol Hill briefing to introduce a new study by Adjunct Scholar Rand…
Tech News World
EU Puts Motorola on the Hot Seat
From Erika Morphy's article in E-Commerce Times: These days, the reaction to any complaint about patent infringement — especially in the mobility space…
CBS Seattle
Will Apple’s Staggering Growth One Day Be Its Undoing?
From Candice Lee Hefland's article for CBS Seattle: “Saturation is not a huge concern. If anything, Apple devices will continue to proliferate a…
CBS Seattle
How to Regulate the Federal Communications Commission
The House of Representatives just passed H.R. 3309, the Federal Communications Commission Process Reform Act, in an attempt to normalize the FCC‘s propensity to regulate…
Blog
The FCC’s Concern for Competitors, not Competition
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee held a hearing on Verizon Wireless’s proposed purchase of spectrum from Cox Wireless and SpectrumCo. The spectrum…
Blog
More Space Socialism From Republicans
Over at the Beyond the Black blog, Bob Zimmerman does what I haven't had time to yet --he excoriates the chairman…
ARS Technica
Witnesses Warn Verizon-Comcast Deal Will Damage Competition
From Timothy B. Lee's article on ArsTechnica: We asked Ryan Radia, an analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to comment on the hearing.
ARS Technica
Let States Regulate Internet Gambling
This country has many serious problems to address, but an activity that millions of people around the world voluntarily enjoy, mostly without incident, is not…
Orange County Register
EDITORIAL: Don’t Throw the E-Book at Apple
From The Orange County Register's editorial: So far, the ebook market actually is dominated by Amazon.com's Kindle device, Ryan Radia told us; he's…
Orange County Register
Verizon’s Deal With Cable Companies Finds Supporters, Detractors
From Michelle Maisto’s article in eWeek: Eleven…
Comment
Reply Comments to FCC Re: Verizon Wireless Application to Acquire Spectrum Licenses
Full Document Available in PDF Executive Summary: The Federal Communications Commission should approve the applications of Verizon Wireless to acquire spectrum licenses…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Heart Gel Repairs Damage
Surviving a heart attack is not the end of the story for most people: for many survivors, tissue in the heart is damaged due to…
Ecomerce Times
Google Unfazed by AGs’ Furrowed Brows
From Erika Morphy's article on E-Commerce Times and TechNewsWorld: From Google's perspective, it has no reason to make changes based on the AGs'…
Blog
Good News/Bad News On Human Spaceflight Regulation
In a bill passed last week authorizing the Federal Aviation Administration for another year, the moratorium on regulation of the safety of spaceflight participants, in…
Blog
U.S. v. Jones and the Future of Privacy
Last week, the Supreme Court handed down a decision in United States v. Jones. The Court held unanimously that because D.C. police entered a…
Blog
Nine Years Of Space Policy Disaster
On the ninth anniversary of the loss of the Columbia space shuttle, I have some thoughts on what’s happened since, over at PJMedia: The problem…
Tech News World
Twitter CEO’s Tweet-Blocking Defense: It’s Just Business
Blog
Newt’s Lunar Base
Over at PJMedia, I discuss the technical, economic and political feasibility of what Newt proposes. But as I note there, the…
Tech News World
Gingrich, Romney Push High Tech Job Creation as U.S. Lead Slips
Tech News World
Immigrants Help Fuel Tech Growth
People are the most valuable resource. We see this most clearly among entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers, and innovators. Creating wealth and new ways of doing things…
Blog
CEI Podcast for January 18, 2012: Dropping the SOPA
Wikipedia, Reddit, and other popular websites all went black today to protest SOPA and PIPA, two bills currently before Congress. Critics charge that the bills…
Blog
The Non-EU Space Code of Conduct
For over a year, there has been concern that the White House would sign an executive order requiring U.S. space activities to adhere to the…
Tech News World
Stopping SOPA: Website Blackouts in Protest of Online Piracy Bill
Tech News World
Ryan Radia: SOPA could change the way the internet works
SOPA could change the way the internet works. Now, some of the biggest websites in the world like Google and Wikipedia are going dark in…
Blog
Feds Should Stay Out of Google/Twitter Social Search Spat
By Berin Szoka, Geoffrey Manne, and Ryan Radia As has become customary with just about every new product announcement by Google these days, the company’s…
Blog
Stuck in a High-Priced Box
The United Launch Alliance just got an Air Force launch contract for 159 launches, which I guess means that they didn’t get the 40-launch block…
Blog
The Lunar Yellow (Non)Peril
Over at PJMedia today, I have a piece on the recently released white paper from the Chinese space program that lays…
Tech News World
The New Politics of Silicon Valley: Revenge of the Nerds
Tech News World
Is Grover Norquist Breaking Up With SOPA?
Blog
Newt’s “Zany” Space Policy
Over at PJMedia over the weekend, I asked some space policy questions of Mitt Romney: So, Governor, if you want to…
Orange County Register
Consumers Lose in Blocked Cellphone Merger
The Orange County Register discusses antitrust regulation on digital companies with Wayne Crews. The opposite is true. "One of the worst aspects of this…
Orange County Register
Government Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Itself
ARS Technica
AT&T Admits Defeat on T-Mobile Takeover, Will Pay $4 Billion Breakup Fee
ARS Technica
Grinches and Scrooges Dislike Facebook This Christmas
Seems it’s time once again to act surprised that Facebook is a social network. Surely you’ve noticed the “Sponsored Stories” ads on Facebook, noting that…
Blog
A Reprieve For NASA Commercial Crew Contractors
There has been a great deal of concern over the past few months among the potential providers of crew services to NASA over their stated…
Letters
Coalition Letter Urges House Judiciary Committee to Consider Implications of SOPA
Full Document Available in PDF The Competitive Enterprise Institute, TechFreedom, Americans…
News Release
Gov’t Ban on Cell Phones While Driving Won’t Improve Safety
Washington, DC, December 14, 2011 – Citing concern over “distracted driving,” the National Transportation Safety Board called on all states to ban on cell…
Blog
Newt’s Moon Mines
Over at National Review Online today, I have some thoughts on the little dust up between Newt and Mitt Saturday night…
CNET
New Version of SOPA Copyright Bill, Old Complaints
CNET
SOPA Foes Marshal Opposition Before House Panel Vote
CNET
Labeling Of Biotech Foods Is Unnecessary And Unconstitutional
This piece was co-written with Henry Miller. Should the government require that labels on cans of marinara sauce contain information about whether the tomatoes in…
Blog
Siri and Modernity’s Iron Laws
The two iron laws of modernity are 1) things are getting better, and 2) people think they're getting worse. One more piece of evidence that…
CNET
SOPA’s Most Aggressive Defender: U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Tech News World
Europe Weary of Apple, Samsung Patent War
Ecomerce Times
Gates Tells Jury Microsoft’s No Bully
Yahoo! News
FCC Net Neutrality Rules Take Effect, Experts Doubt Longevity
Tech Liberation
Why SOPA Threatens the DMCA Safe Harbor
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a controversial bill before the House of Representatives aimed at combating “rogue websites,” isn’t just about criminal, foreign-based…
E Week
Security Experts Blast House Anti-Piracy Bill’s DNS Filtering Provisions
E Week
Republicans, Democrats, Google, and Church of Sweden Unite to Halt Hollywood
E Week
U.S. House Considers Copyright Bill
CNET
SOPA Bill Won’t Make U.S. a ‘Repressive Regime,’ Democrat Says
News Release
Congress Should Amend SOPA to Address Cybersecurity, Due Process Concerns
Washington, D.C., November 16, 2011 — This morning, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Privacy Act. Below…
Blog
Penny-Wise, Pound-Foolish on NASA
On Sunday, flights to the ISS resumed for the first time since the retirement of the Shuttle last summer. As I’ve…
CNET
Showdown Looms Over Stop Online Piracy Act
CNET
Google, Facebook to Congress: Don’t Expect Us to Police Piracy
Staff & Scholars
Jessica Melugin
Director of the Center for Technology & Innovation
- Antitrust
- Innovation
- Media, Speech and Internet Freedoms
Clyde Wayne Crews
Fred L. Smith Fellow in Regulatory Studies
- Business and Government
- Consumer Freedom
- Deregulation
Fred L. Smith, Jr.
Founder; Chairman Emeritus
- Automobiles and Roads
- Aviation
- Business and Government