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
News Release
New CEI paper: FCC should stop regulating news content
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has long used its role in licensing spectrum to broadcast television and radio stations to regulate those outlets under the…
The Daily Economy
Digital ID and the Return of Big Brother Britain
Fresh out of university and looking for a career in public policy, I interviewed for a job in the Conservative Research Department of the British…
Blog
Free Speech Week: The speech that ignited a revolution — and still speaks to us today
A Richmond story, a Virginia legacy, and the American ethos Richmond is my home city. My family has lived in Virginia for generations, and our…
Search Posts
One News Now
Two Views on Danger of ‘Net Neutrality’
One News Now talks to Ryan Radia about free-market reasons to oppose Net Neutrality: If this is a free speech issue, says the Competitive…
Study
From Overstock to Overtaxed
With Congress poised to consider similar taxes in the Marketplace Fairness Act…
News Release
New Report: The Economic and Legal Problems with Internet Sales Taxes
WASHINGTON – Today, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released a new study analyzing the economic downsides and legal problems with…
Vox
The GOP’s Senate Takeover Could Be a Big Deal for Net Neutrality and Patent Reform
CEI's Ryan Radia discusses net neutrality, patent reform and online privacy with Vox Media: Net Neutrality: "Still, Ryan Radia of the Competitive…
Comment
Comments to NHTSA Regarding Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications
Full Document Available in PDF On behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (“CEI”), I respectfully submit these comments in response to the…
PC World
Groups Accuse FCC of Helping Net Neutrality Advocates File Comments
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission engaged in the worst kind of “partisan politics” by working closely with net neutrality advocates to ensure their comments were…
Letters
CEI, National and State Coalitions Support Internet Tax Moratorium
Full Document Avalible in PDF The Competitive Enterprise Institute, along with dozens of State and National organizations are asking the Senate to…
Comment
Comcast-TWC Merger Comments to FCC
View Full Comments Here In comments filed with the Federal Communications Commission yesterday, the Competitive Enterprise Institute urged the FCC to unconditionally…
Investor's Business Daily
Big Government Can’t Keep Up In Digital Era
Article by Michael Barone Earlier this week, I was thinking of writing a column about the lying and duplicity of ObamaCare backers who argued that…
Austin American Statesman
Texans Should Beware of Internet Sales Tax
Texas is one of the nation’s best states for doing business, according to a recent CNBC survey. Lone Star lawmakers deserve credit for the pro-growth…
Blog
New Report Highlights Driverless Car Urban Impact; Takes Techno-Dystopian Stance
Earlier this month, Professor David Begg of Transport Times published a new report on automated transport technology focusing on the potential impacts on London. This is one of…
Blog
Bitcoin’s Undiscovered Potential
A recent piece in American Banker magazine explores how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can help the underprivileged, particularly the millions of unbanked people who…
The Skeptical Libertarian
Reasons Libertarians Should Be Skeptical of Uber Politics
Libertarians, we may have an Uber problem. Don’t get me wrong, friends of freedom. I love Uber. I use Uber at least once a week.
Forbes
Techno-Libertarianism: Building The Case For Separation Of Technology And State
Can we keep government’s hands off the technology frontier? I like to think it makes sense that libertarianism—or classical liberal ideas–would resonate in places like…
1776
Commercial Drones Face Sky-High Regulatory Barriers
The widespread adoption of commercial unmanned aircraft systems—commonly called “drones”—should be right around the corner. But overcautious, burdensome regulation threatens to hold it back. To…
Human Events
Expert’s Take: TV Broadcast Rights
The Supreme Court this week ruled against a television broadcast company whose business model was infringing on copyright law. Ryan Radia, associate director of technology…
Blog
Why the Supreme Court’s Aereo Decision Protects Creators without Endangering the Cloud
This post was coauthored by Geoffrey Manne and Ben Sperry of the International Center for Law and Economics. It originally appeared at Truth on…
WBUR Boston
Supreme Court Aereo Decision Also A Blow To Boston’s Tech Sector
The media company Hearst Corporation, which owns WCVB-TV in Boston, says it is pleased with the ruling for protecting its right to be compensated. The…
News Release
Aereo Decision Protects Creators and Distributors
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Annie Dwyer; 202-331-2765 WASHINGTON, June 25 – This morning, the United States Supreme Court ruled against the online-streaming company…
Blog
Distracted by Paranoia, Obama Administration to Regulate Map Apps?
A story in The New York Times is making the rounds about an Obama administration proposal to clarify the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) authority to…
Blog
Ridesharing Wars: Uber, Regulators, and the “California Compromise”
Yesterday, as many in the D.C. metro area are aware, Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles sent cease-and-desist letters to Uber (PDF) and Lyft…
Forbes
There’s A Way To Pay Off America’s Budget Deficits That Is Easy, And Wholly Painless
Whatever your views on the role of government, one thing is clear: There will be no way to pay for it if the economy doesn’t…
Blog
House Intel Committee Chair Ignores Report Calling NSA Surveillance Illegal
At a recent event titled “A Statesman Forum on Cybersecurity Policy and Diplomacy” at George Washington University, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.)…
The Oklahoman
Think Tank Fellow: Taxing At Place Of Origin Is The Best Method
Starved for cash, cities in Oklahoma and across the nation are looking to new sources of revenue. Their latest target? The Internet. Municipal officials are…
Blog
How Policy Makers Should Approach Google’s Driverless Shuttles
Yesterday, Chris Urmson, director of Google’s Self-Driving Car Project, wrote a post for the company blog describing Google’s newest prototype: fully automated vehicles that…
The Oklahoman
Distracted Drivers Or Driverless Cars?
The treatment of self-driving vehicles by policymakers represents one of the major barriers to their emergence, according to the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Only New…
Blog
Senate Leaders Kill Patent Reform, Once again Thwarting Democracy to Protect Special Interests
Hundreds of moderate and conservative bills have passed the House of Representatives, often overwhelmingly, only to die in the Senate without even being voted…
National Review
Quick Hits
Hans Bader writes about how Harry Reid killed a bipartisan patent-reform bill, and simultaneously undermined one of President Obama’s favorite talking points.
Blog
No, Gov. Perry, a Ban on Internet Gambling Won’t Protect the Internet or Individual Freedom
In an attempt to save face, Texas Governor Rick Perry is trying to justify his support for a federal online gambling ban by claiming that it’s the…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 20, 2014: Phones on a Plane
CEI Fellow Marc Scribner supports the FCC's attempt to lift a ban on in-flight cell phone use.
Blog
Consumers Will Win in Combined AT&T-DirecTV
AT&T agreed Sunday to purchase DirecTV for $67 billion in cash, stock, and acquired debt. If federal regulators approve the deal, the combined firm…
Forbes
Questions For Advocates Of Net Neutrality Regulation
Flawed premises notwithstanding, the Federal Communications Commission’s self interested campaign to inflict net neutrality rules on the private communications infrastructure continues with a new rulemaking…
Blog
The Premises of Net Neutrality
In the electric power industry, if you run an extension cord across the street to serve another, you go to jail. The local utility has…
Blog
No, the FCC Did Not Allow “Fast Lanes” on the Internet, Yet
This week, the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) held an Open Meeting to propose new rules regarding regulation of Internet service providers (ISPs), such as Verizon and…
The Real News
TRNN Debate: Should The Internet Be Regulated Like A Utility?
ANTON WORONCZUK, TRNN PRODUCER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I'm Anton Woronczuk in Baltimore. The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, has just voted three…
Mapping the Internet
Parallel Internets, Another Internet Treaty Or Both? The Next Pieces Of The Internet Governance Jigsaw Puzzle – Part 2
For a long time before Brazil, Angela Merkel and others had awoken to the possibility of networks separate though connected to the currently US-dominated…
Blog
CEI Podcast for May 14, 2014: Federal Ban on Online Gambling?
CEI Fellow Michelle Minton discusses why a federal ban on online gambling would be counterproductive.
Blog
Google’s Self-Driving Cars Approach 700,000 Miles of Crash-Free Driving
In a report released last week for CEI, I noted that developers need to be able to demonstrate automated vehicle safety benefits in order…
Blog
FCC’s Internet Fast Lanes Should Outrun Net Neutrality Bias
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will issue proposed rules May 15, rules expected expected to allow premium pricing for Internet fast lanes alongside the lane…
Study
Self-Driving Regulation
Leonardo da Vinci first sketched the design for a self-propelled cart in the late 15th century. In 2010, Google announced its fleet of self-driving cars…
Blog
Taxable Bitcoins 2: We’re Not Gonna Pay it!
Reason magazine’s Brian Doherty recently addressed the IRS’s recent announcement that bitcoin transactions are taxable. As I addressed in my last piece, while the…
Blog
Taxable Bitcoins: Property or Money?
Is Bitcoin currency or property? It depends on which parts of the federal government you ask. Last week the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced that bitcoins…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: 3D Printing Cups, Cars, Houses, and Faces
3D printing is a relatively recent technological development that has already begun to revolutionize model-building, structural and other medical procedures, and construction of items from…
Blog
Human Achievement of the Day: Autonomous Vehicles, from Imagination to Reality
[caption id="attachment_55209" align="alignright" width="300"] CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman about to take a spin in a Google self-driving car in May 2012. (Photo by Marc…
Blog
MtGox is Dead, Long Live MtGox!
MtGox, once a pillar of the Bitcoin exchange market, filed for bankruptcy on March 10. In February, the website had ceased withdrawals before ceasing…
Legal Brief
Amicus Brief – American Broadcasting Companies v. Aereo, Inc.
Full document available in PDF CEI and ICLE filed a joint amicus brief in the Aereo case, which the Supreme Court…
Blog
Growing Support for Road User Charges Will Be Highlighted at March Conference
I’ve written about the importance of charging road users for their road use for some time. Moving toward a truly user-pays system will require significant…
Comment
Comments to the Federal Communications Commission in the matter of Expanding Access to Mobile Wireless Services Onboard Aircraft
Full…
Forbes
Art, Free Speech, Hypocrisy, Tightie-Whities, and Teenage Tantrums
Welcome to the culture wars’ latest opera buffa. In recent weeks, Wellesley College has been embroiled in a raging controversy over …. a lifelike statue…
Blog
CEI Podcast for February 12, 2014: Are Cell Phones Coming to an Airplane Near You?
CEI Fellow Marc Scribner opposes a bill that would ban in-flight cell phone usage on airplanes. He believes that decision should be left to airlines,…
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