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
News Release
Conservative, Libertarian Leaders Discuss Regulatory Burdens, Fiscal and Privacy Concerns of Mandatory E-Verify Legislation
Washington, D.C. — On Thursday, June 30th, conservative and libertarian leaders will host a press conference call on controversial immigration enforcement legislation the House Judiciary…
News Release
FTC Assaults Free Enterprise With Google Investigation
Washington, D.C., June 24, 2011 — Today, Google disclosed that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has initiated a formal investigation of the company’s business…
Op-Eds
Catching Air Without NASA: How Will We Regulate Commercial Space Flight?
What if having a vibrant space program requires bypassing NASA? There exist great pressures for change despite NASA’s signature successes. The private experimental launches…
Tech News World
FCC Aims to Get Carriers’ Sticky Fingers Out of Customers’ Pockets
Blog
LulzSec and Bitcoin Confusion
Two things most people have never heard of before have been in the news recently: Bitcoin and LulzSec. Over the weekend the largest Bitcoin exchange,…
Blog
Where Do TSA-Confiscated Items Go?
The TSA has a habit of confiscating security-unrelated items. Over at The American Spectator, I recall just such an experience that I had at O'Hare.
Blog
Life, Liberty, and Internet?
Josh Smith reports in National Journal that Representative Doris Matsui (D-Calif.), has proposed legislation to provide subsidized Internet services to low-income Americans. The…
CDT
A Sledgehammer, a Silver Bullet, or Something in Between? Experts Debate ‘Do Not Track’
News Release
Think Tank Applauds Location Privacy Legislation
Today U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and U.S. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) introduced the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act to better protect Americans’…
News Release
Radia to Speak at CFP2011 Panel on Do Not Track Regulation
Washington, D.C., June 14, 2011 — CEI Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia is speaking today at the 2011 “Computers, Freedom & Privacy”…
Blog
The Last Nail in the Coffin for the Fairness Doctrine?
In response to calls by lawmakers for the Fairness Doctrine and related measures to be permanently removed from the Federal Register, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski…
Blog
California Social Networking Bill In Its Death Throes
In Sacramento, California, a bill that would regulate social networking is reportedly on its death bed after failing by five votes last week. The online…
Blog
Dismantling Sarbanes-Oxley
My colleague Ryan Radia and I recently wrote in an editorial for Investor's Business Daily that the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act should be dismantled for the…
News Release
Free Market Groups Applaud Proposed Privacy Law Reforms
Washington, D.C., May 17, 2011 – Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) today introduced legislation (S. 1011) to reform the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA). The…
Blog
PROTECT IP Act: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Combating "rogue websites" is a top priority for many in Congress this year. Lawmakers have held several hearings over the past few months…
News Release
CEI Calls PROTECT IP Act “an Improvement” Over COICA
Today, three U.S. Senators introduced the PROTECT IP Act (bill text), which would establish new mechanisms for combating “rogue” Internet sites that are…
Blog
Regulation of the Day 173: Yellow Pages
San Francisco is phasing out the distribution of hard-copy Yellow Pages.
Blog
The FCC is Broken
A new report in The Hill notes House Republicans’ concern over “dysfunction” at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the need for overhaul. Their…
Seattle PI
Telecom deal not clear as a bell
The Washington Times
State Cartel Looking to Hike Internet Taxes
A handful of U.S. senators are teeing up legislation to capture more tax revenue on Internet purchases. Certainly there are valid (and some not so…
Blog
Laura Ingraham on Protecting Email from Unwarranted Governmental Access
On Wednesday, I appeared on the Laura Ingraham Show to discuss the Obama administration's stance on reforming the 1986 law that governs law enforcement access…
Statesman
Texas Lawmakers Should Reject a Tax on Satellite TV
No one likes new taxes especially ones that don't make sense. Unfortunately, politicians never seem to learn this simple lesson. Lawmakers in Austin are…
Blog
YouTube Introduces “Copyright School” to Educate Infringing Users
In the ongoing copyright debates, areas of common ground are seemingly few and far between. It's easy to forget that not all approaches to…
Heartland
FCC Issues CA Man $7,000 Forfeiture Order
The Mercury News
An Alternative to California Proposal to Tax E-Commerce
Painful awards shows aren’t the only odious things stirring in California these days. State lawmakers want to collect sales taxes on Californians’ purchases from…
CNET
Privacy dispute tests Obama’s earlier promises
News Release
Justice Department Approves Google’s ITA Acquisition, With Conditions
Contact: Lee Doren, 202-331-2259 Nicole Ciandella, 202-331-2773 Washington, D.C., April 8, 2011 – Today, the Department of Justice announced a proposed…
Daily Caller
House moves against net neutrality but obstacles remain
News Release
Leading Free Market Groups Urge Congress to Update U.S. Privacy Laws
Washington, D.C., April 6, 2011 — This morning, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will hear key administration officials testify about the statute that governs…
Letters
Coalition Letter Urging Congress to Update Privacy Laws
Full Document Available in PDF As public interest groups dedicated to limited, Constitutional…
Blog
Senators Seek to Censor Mobile App Stores, Disregarding Public Safety and the Constitution
In the latest example of big government run amok, several politicians think they ought to be in charge of which applications you should be able…
News Release
CEI Urges Congress to Address Orphan Works Problem
Today, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected a proposed class action settlement agreement between Google, the Authors Guild,…
Blog
Are Text Messages an Antitrust Issue?
Text messages cost 20 cents to send, even though they use a fraction of a penny of bandwidth. What gives? Antitrust authorities want to know.
Daily Caller
Cybersecurity Theater vs. The Real Thing
Computer attacks cost mid-to large size businesses $3.8 million annually on average , and generate massive global damage. Some homeland security and cybersecurity specialists even warn…
News Release
Congress Should Reject Privacy-Killing Do Not Track Mandate
Washington, D.C., March 16, 2011 — Today, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on “The State of Online Consumer Privacy.” Below…
Blog
CEI Podcast for March 10, 2011: Keeping Private Data Private
Associate Director of Technology Studies Ryan Radia talks about rampant how to prevent data privacy violations in the Internet age.
Ecomerce Times
House Subcommittee Vote Unlikely to Impede Net Neutrality Rules
News Release
Free Market Coalition Warns Against E-Verify Mandate
Washington, D.C., March 10, 2011 — The House Judiciary Committee is currently considering a law that would require all private employers in the United…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Mosquito-Zapping Lasers
It’s hard to deny that lasers are cool, but a lasers that can blast mosquitoes out of the sky, protecting us from the malaria spreading…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Mobile Phone Credit Card Processing
It’s a hot summer day, you pass by a lemonade stand and you think "An ice-cold lemonade would really hit the spot," but you have…
Ecomerce Times
French Firm Slings Another Stone at Google in EC Antitrust Spat
Ecomerce Times
Tough Terms May Land Apple’s Subscription Service in Hot Water
Ecomerce Times
Cyber Insecurity: Flip That Internet “Kill Switch” Plan
Unless there’s a major critical infrastructure failure, cybersecurity’s never going to be a pop culture concern like Cee-Lo Green or Christina at the Super Bowl.
News Release
House Hearing on FCC’s Net Neutrality Proposal Should Investigate “Agency Neutrality”
Washington, D.C., February 16, 2011—The following is a statement from CEI’s Director of Technology Studies, Wayne Crews: All five Federal Communications Commission (FCC) commissioners…
Blog
iPhone 4 is All About Verizon, Not Apple
Design loyalists know it all begins and ends with Apple, the little tech company whose mission statement is “to change the world.” When it comes…
News Release
Free Market Think Tank Urges House to Reject Patriot Act Extension
Washington, D.C., February 8, 2011 – Today, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on an extension of three provisions of the Patriot…
Blog
Tweeting Around Egypt’s Web Blackout: Meet John Scott-Railton
Recently, the Egyptian government blocked Egyptians’ access to the Internet. However, it couldn’t block the Internet itself. Consequently, John Scott-Railton figured out a way to…
Ecomerce Times
‘Kill switch’ = more federal power
Blog
Congress Considering “Kill Switch” for Capitalism
Introduced last summer, a bill affording President Obama executive power over private Internet companies in the event of a “national cyberemergency” is returning this year,…
Ecomerce Times
Mis-State Of The Union
Politicians rarely think voluntary markets are so grand that they couldn’t benefit from a good ol’ dose of compulsion. It’s a shame, because that…
Blog
How to Cop Proof Your Cell Phone
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVCROjpgCB0 285 234]…
Blog
CEI Podcast for January 20, 2011: The Future of Space Policy
CEI Adjunct Scholar and space policy expert Rand Simberg explains why NASA stagnated after its early success in bringing man to the moon.
Ecomerce Times
Comcast OK With Feds’ Conditions for NBC Merger
Reason
Being Smart With Your Smartphone, Police Search Edition
Study
Protect Free Speech by Rejecting Content Regulation
Liberate to Stimulate Index In recent years, the First Amendment’s protections have been increasingly extended to commercial speech, such as product advertisements…
Study
Counteract Politicization of Federal Science Policy
Liberate to Stimulate Index The federal politicization of science in many areas is harming science itself. Ethics rules and advisory panel guidelines…
Study
Reject the Precautionary Principle, a Threat to Technological Progress
Liberate to Stimulate Index Increasingly, governments and environmental activists are demanding that producers of both new and old technologies prove that their…
Study
Avoid Hindering the Internet’s Evolution through Net Neutrality Regulation
Liberate to Stimulate Index In 2010, Congress failed to enact legislation authorizing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to enforce network neutrality rules.
Slashdot
Encrypt Your Smartphone – Or Else
Blog
Smartphone Searches, Encryption, and the Constitution
The smartphone is arguably one of the most empowering and revolutionary technologies of the modern era. By putting the processing power of a personal…
ARS Technica
Why You Should Always Encrypt Your Smartphone
Last week, California's Supreme Court reached a controversial 5-2 decision in People v. Diaz (PDF), holding that police officers may lawfully search mobile phones found on…
Blog
Benefits of Cutting White Pages Distribution
After asking why so many states get involved in TelCo activity (requiring that phone books get distributed in hard copy, even over phone companies’ vigorous…
Blog
Why Do States Still Require Phone Books to Be Delivered?
Did you know that some states require companies to deliver phone books to state residents? Never mind the fact that most people don’t use phone…
ARS Technica
The FDA Needs Strong Medicine
Christmas came a couple of weeks late to the business sectors regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The greatest threat to the success of…
The WHIR
What’s hampering innovation?
The WHIR discusses regulation approval processes with Wayne Crews. Wayne Crews of the Competitive Enterprise Institute took the first position. He feels that…
The WHIR
Sack Vilsack!
Something is very wrong at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The secretary, Tom Vilsack, is letting hypothetical claims by organic farmers–who produce less than 1%…
The WHIR
What the New Congress Can Do For the Technology Sector
This week the Consumer Electronics Show will eat Las Vegas whole, and it’s an awesome thing to behold. Here’s hoping that the affiliated…
PC World
What’s Next for the FCC and Net Neutrality?
Blog
FCC Net Neutrality: Some Networks are More Neutral than Others
Today’s decision [by FCC bureaucrats] will help preserve the free and open nature of the Internet [as defined by the government] while encouraging innovation [as…
Blog
Will Net Neutrality Save the Internet?
Reason.TV created an excellent video explaining Net Neutrality and arguing against it. I’ve heard too many people irrationally claim that big corporations are going to…
Study
Recognize the Role of Private Enterprise in Protecting Critical Infrastructure and Cybersecurity
Full Document Available in PDF…
Study
Protect Incentives for Pharmaceutical Innovation
Full Document Available in PDF In recent years, Congress has faced mounting public pressure…
Boston.com
FCC passes ‘net neutrality’ Internet regulations
Study
Protect Free Speech by Rejecting Content Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF In recent years, the First Amendment’s…
Study
Avoid Hampering the Internet through Net Neutrality Regulation
Full Document Available in PDF Some observers have speculated that 2009…
Study
Keep Government’s Hands off the Net and E-Commerce
Full Document Available in PDF As a network of networks, the…
Study
Avoid Privacy Regulation that Could Worsen Personal Security
Full Document Available in PDF There are two great ironies in…
Study
Liberalize Telecommunications
Full Document Available in PDF Appeals to the “public interest” and claims of airwave scarcity have long been…
News Release
FCC Commissioners Should Reject Net Neutrality Rules
Washington, D.C., December 20, 2010 – Tomorrow morning, the FCC will hold a vote on network neutrality rules, mere days before Christmas celebrations begin.
Blog
Online Poker is Not Illegal: U.S. Courts
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of New York sentenced convicted felon Anurag Dikshit, the co-founder of PartyGaming.com, to a meager year of probation and indicated his…
Blog
Interchange Price Controls: Gift to Big Merchants, Lump of Coal for Consumers and Community Financial Institutions
On Thursday, the Federal Reserve — at the direction of Congress in the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank financial “reform” bill — will give…
Blog
TSA’s Bad Policies Aren’t Going Away
Public outrage at the TSA's new policies has died down. That's a real shame, because people are still having experiences like this one.
Boston.com
Keep Privacy Policies Private
Like the lame duck itself, the online privacy turkey waddles on this December. It’s headed for January and the next Congress. Along with proposed legislation,…
Blog
Does Wikileaks Have a First Amendment Case Against Joe Lieberman?
Amazon made headlines last week when it abruptly cut off service to Wikileaks, allegedly on the grounds that the site had violated Amazon's…
Blog
Wikileaks’ Assange to Australian Times: “I’m Not Sorry”
Julian Assange wrote an op-ed in the Australian Times today essentially saying, “I’m not sorry”: I grew up in a Queensland country…
Blog
Homeland Security Violating Due Process and Free Speech In Internet Power Grab?
Law professor David Post notes that the Department of Homeland Security is seizing entire domain names, not to protect national security, but to enforce…
Local Tech Wire
Opinion: ‘Net neutrality’ will hurt consumers, limit investment
IT Pro Portal
EU Google antitrust probe will hurt consumers
IT Pro Portal reports on the Google antitrust lawsuit and references comments by Wayne Crews and Ryan Radia on the case. However, competition…
Blog
European Commission Should Leave Internet Search Alone
Today, the European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Google to probe allegations that the firm rigged its search engine to discriminate against…
Ecomerce Times
Google Denies Rankings Hanky-Panky as EU Pursues Probe
News Release
FCC Presses Forward With Destructive Net Neutrality Rules
Washington, D.C., December 1, 2010—This morning, Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski announced that the Commission will vote on net neutrality rules during…
Washington Post
Feds pledge some action on privacy, less on net neutrality
The Washington Post cite CEI's Wayne Crews and Ryan Radia's comments on net neutrality. Other observers like the FCC's new deal even less.
Huffington Post
Yes, Mr. FCC Chairman, There Is a Santa Claus
The Huffington Post cites Wayne Crews's comments on the FCC's net neutrality rule. The would-be chairmen of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are…
News Release
EU Antitrust Investigation Into Google Will Hurt Consumers
Washington, D.C., November 30, 2010 – Today, the European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Google to probe allegations that the firm rigged…
Blog
An Intrusive, Ineffective, Unionized TSA?
Much has been written about the backlash against the TSA’s intrusive new screening methods. Law professor Jeff Rosen has argued that they violate…
Blog
TSA Roundup
The Thanksgiving travel rush is officially underway.
Blog
Six Ways Congress Can Fix COICA Copyright Bill
Over at the Technology Liberation Front, I discuss the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act” (COICA), which the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously…
Tech Liberation
Five Ways Congress Can Fix COICA Copyright Bill
On November 18, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act” (COICA). The bill would enable the U.S. Attorney General…
News Release
Congress Should Amend COICA, Think Tank Argues
Washington, D.C., November 19, 2010 — Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to approve the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act” (COICA).
Blog
TSA’s John Pistole Offers to Probe Senators: Shouldn’t He Buy Them Dinner First?
TSA chief John Pistole offered to give enhanced pat-downs to senators at a hearing today on TSA's new screening policies.
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