As a result, CEI experts have encouraged and supported trade-enhancing policies and treaties over the years, including “fast-track” Trade Promotion Authority, specific trade deals, and multilateral efforts such as the Doha round of the World Trade Organization. We have opposed increased tariffs, attempts to increase regulation through trade deal language, and the trend toward bilateral rather than multilateral deals. CEI continues to make the case for free trade in the face of increased bipartisan hostility to the idea.
CEI’s experts also work with like-minded colleagues abroad to oppose harmful initiatives, such as working with British colleagues to stop that country’s competition agency from blocking mergers between American firms based on speculative reasoning.
Featured Posts
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Biden says his steel tariffs totally different from Trump’s, speculates uncle was eaten by cannibals
President Joe Biden vowed Wednesday that he would get tough on China’s steel dumping by tripling tariffs on imports. He argued this was totally different…
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Free the Economy podcast: Paying for organs with Pete Jaworski
In this week’s episode we cover the future of AI and employment, why we shouldn’t trust Chinese economic statistics, and how the…
Daily Caller
Fresh Report Explains How International Climate Treaties Benefit China At America’s Expense
CEI’s Ben Lieberman is cited in Daily Caller on the Kigali Amendment: “China’s status as a developing nation in U.N. treaties has created an unfair…
Search Posts
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Internet is easy prey for governments: “For all that the revolution in Egypt tells us about the power of…
Citation
Democracy in Egypt? Define “Democracy”
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Egyptian Riots Fueled by Ethanol Subsidies and Biofuel Mandates
As world food prices hit a record high, protests in Egypt demand the removal of the country’s pro-American dictator, Hosni Mubarak. No one can…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: A Shortage of Power in Data Centers?: “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone, right? If you’ve ever experienced a…
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American Apparel Almost Bankrupt; Supply and Demand Alive and Well
American Apparel has started dumping shares, so stock up on your leggings and Ts now. Explanations are below, if you’ll try for a moment to…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: News Corp. Launches Digital Daily: “News Corp. on Wednesday unveiled The Daily, a tablet newspaper that Chairman Rupert Murdoch described as “the…
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Ethanol and the Egyptian Riots
Ethanol subsidies helped cause the Egyptian riots, contributing to the “skyrocketing food prices” that triggered “the massive unrest now occurring in Egypt,” argues economist…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Google accuses Microsoft on search data: “Google has accused arch-rival Microsoft of plagiarising its internet search results in an attempt to narrow…
Op-Eds
Christians In the Middle East and the American Dream
The current uprising in Egypt is troubling many Christians throughout the region, but it is not a stand alone incident. Pope Benedict XVI’s New Year’s…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: 200GB to 25GB: Canada gets first, bitter does of metered Internet: “Metered Internet usage (also called “Usage-Based Billing”) is coming to Canada,…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Without Internet, Egyptians find new ways to get online: “”When countries block, we evolve,” an activist with the group We Rebuild wrote…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Facebook posts mined for court case evidence: “It’s the latest litigation tactic in the online age: U.S. lawyers are trying to mine…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Facebook phones to be unveiled next month: “London-based City A.M. is reporting that Facebook, in conjunction with Taiwanese phone manufacturer HTC, will…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: DOJ seeks mandatory data retention requirement for ISPs: “The U.S. Department of Justice and an organization representing police chiefs from around the…
Citation
Obama’s SOTU Speech: More Spending on Democrat Special Interests
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What’s Expected on Trade in the State of the Union Address
In his State of the Union address tonight, President Obama will finally set out his agenda and timetable on three pending free trade agreements…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Two-thirds of U.S. Internet users lack fast broadband: “Two-thirds of U.S. Internet connections are slower than 5 Mbps, putting the United States…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Opps: No copied Java code or weapons of mass destruction found in Android: ?Sometimes the sheer wrongness of what is posted on…
Citation
Dems Prefer Academic Theories of Job Creation to Economic Reality
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Obama Policies Fuel Global Food Crisis Through Ethanol Mandates, While Fostering Obesity in America
Food prices are soaring all over the world. The global food chain is reportedly stretched to the limit, fueled by the fact…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Gov will spend 400k pounds to destroy ID card data: “The cost of destroying the personal data collected under the ill-starred programme…
Citation
Are Biofuel Policies Fueling a Global Food Crisis?
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Starbucks launches largest mobile payment program in the US: “Starbucks has started accepting mobile payments. Customers can use the Starbucks Card Mobile…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: FCC signs off on Comcast’s bid to control NBC Universal: “Federal regulators signed off on Comcast Corp.’s bid to control NBC Universal,…
Blog
Will UAW Seek Foreign Help to Unionize American Workers?
America has a vibrant and successful auto industry — just largely outside of Detroit. For years, many foreign automakers’ American divisions have been successful at…
Study
Advance a Global Pro-Trade Agenda
Liberate to Stimulate Index Increasing liberalization of world trade is a key factor behind the dramatic increase in global prosperity since the…
Study
Reform Federal Agriculture Programs
Liberate to Stimulate Index With America’s economy struggling to roar back to strong growth and a deficit approaching $1 trillion, policy makers…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Facebook: Goldman Sachs excludes US investors from deal: “Investors from outside America will be able to take part in…
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WikiLeaks Backs Censorship in Response to Tucson Shootings
In a press release, WikiLeaks has blamed Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and other conservatives for the Tucson shootings, and called for them to…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Google Release Chrome 8.0.522, Pays $14,000 in Bug Bounties: “Google has released version 8.0.552.237 of its Chrome browser, which includes fixes for…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Person Tweeting Death Wish for Palin Now Wants Privacy: “Now YouTube is threatening to pull the video because one of the people…
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US Loses Ground in 2011 Index of Economic Freedom
The U.S. dropped from 8 to 9 on the just-released “Index of Economic Freedom” put out by the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Verizon iPhone Could Double U.S. Mobile Games Industry This Year: “Earlier today, Verizon and Apple finally confirmed what everyone knew was coming:…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Iceland protests to U.S. over Twitter data demand: “Iceland called in the U.S. ambassador in Reykjavik on Monday to register its displeasure…
Citation
Inspector General Says ‘Jobs Saved’ Numbers Are Nonsense; Totals ‘Should Be Offset By Thousands Destroyed’
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Twitter endorsements face OFT clampdown: “How does a celebrity declare their affiliations to certain brands in fewer than 140 characters? Many may…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Hackers find new way to cheat on Wall Street – to everyone’s peril: “High-frequency trading networks, which complete stock market transactions in…
The Wall Street Journal
Our Mistaken Sugar Policy Is Killing American Jobs
I was bemused by David Baxter’s charge that the Competitive Enterprise Institute hasn’t fought against the costly U.S. sugar program and its powerful lobby. Au…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: HHS is Paying Google with Taxpayer Money to Alter ‘Obamacare’ Search Results (Updated): “The brazenness of the Obama administration never ceases to…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: CES 2011 Predictions: 7 Trends To Watch At The World’s Biggest Tech Show: “Las Vegas is currently gearing up for the Consumer…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Court OKs searches of cell phones without warrant: “The California Supreme Court allowed police Monday to search arrestees’ cell phones without a…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: The 10 best Android hacks: “The web’s massed fanboy armies will debate the relative merits of iOS and Android until the apocalypse,…
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Paris Contemplates SUV Ban
Paris is looking to potentially ban “gas-guzzling” vehicles from city limits. The proposal, still in its infancy, lacks important details but nonetheless appears to…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Apple Sued Over Apps Privacy Issues; Google May Be Next: “Two separate groups of iPhone and iPad users have…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Earth project aims to ‘simulate everything’: “An international group of scientists are aiming to create a simulator that can replicate everything happening…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Top Chinese blogger shuts down country’s first pvt magazine: “China’s first private magazine, which was launched by famous blogger Han Han in…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Top 10 Tech Disasters That Haven’t Happened… Yet: “Congratulations: You’ve survived another year, and 2010 was quite an eventful one. For…
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U.S. Blows Hard at Chinese Wind Power Subsidies
Well, the U.S. has taken it one step further — it has gone to the World Trade Organization for “consultations” about China’s green energy…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Skype Outage hits users worldwide: “Millions of Skype Internet phone users worldwide couldn’t make calls — or were dropped in mid-conversation —…
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The Colombia FTA Deserves a Speedy Vote
President Obama needs to look beyond pushing only the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement to standing behind ratification of the other pending trade agreements with…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: E-Mail Gets an Instant Makeover: “Signs you’re an old fogey: You still watch movies on a VCR, listen to vinyl records and…
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CEI Podcast — December 21, 2010: What’s Next for Immigration Reform?
CEI Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh goes over the good and the bad of the DREAM Act, which recently stalled in the Senate, and offers his…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: FCC to Vote on Internet Regulation Plan Despite Economic Warnings: “Lawmakers are on high alert as the Federal Communications Commission prepares…
Study
Advance a Global Pro-Trade Agenda
Full Document Available in PDF Increasing liberalization of world trade is one…
Local Techwire
FCC prepares to adopt ‘net neutrality’ rules
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Chavez defends plan for Internet regulations: “Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez defended plans for a law that would impose broadcast-type regulations on the…
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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…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: FCC’s net neutrality plan faces growing chorus of bipartisan opposition: “As the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) prepares to vote next week on…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Approval of Internet traffic rules likely-analysis: “Contentious Internet traffic rules facing a vote next week are likely to be adopted without radically…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Air Force Blocks Media Sites: “The U.S. Air Force is blocking its personnel from using work computers to view the websites of…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Gawker Media Hacked, Warns Users to Change Passwords: “E-mail addresses and password details for 200,000 registered users of Gawker…
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There are No Victors in Trade Wars
Today the World Trade Organization issued a decision confirming that the United States did not break any of its obligations with China over the…
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Stimulus Impact: Zero, or Less Than Zero?
In The Wall Street Journal, economists John F. Cogan and John B. Taylor argue that the impact of the $800 billion “Obama stimulus” was…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Anonymous’ Operation : Payback campaign defends Wikileaks, downs MasterCard website: “Online supporters of whistleblowing website Wikileaks are fighting back…
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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
Allure of the Seas: A Nation of “Why Not?”
The newest, largest cruise ship in the world set sail on its maiden voyage this week. Crewmembers tout the Allure’s motto: “A Nation of Why…
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Pro-Trade Country Songs — Oak Ridge Boys Beat Brad Paisley
Over at Cato@Liberty, David Boaz points to a post by Chris Cardiff on RootedinProsperity.com praising a song and video of country superstar Brad…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Sharpton: FCC should threaten radio stations carrying Rush [Video]: “If the left can’t get Rush by reviving the Fairness Doctrine, maybe the…
Blog
Fuzzy Math on Foreign Aid Shows Why Spending Cuts Are Difficult
Most Americans want to increase government-to-government transfers ten-fold from current levels while also cutting them in half.
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: Wave Goodbye to Internet Freedom: “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to add the Internet to its portfolio of regulated industries.
Blog
From Poor and Sick to Healthy and Rich
I'm always impressed with creative, compelling ways to use data to tell a story. And this story is one of the most important in human…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: WikiLeaks switches to Swiss domain after attacks: “WikiLeaks was forced Friday to switch over to a Swiss domain name, wikileaks.ch, after a…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Google To Punish No-Good Sites With Revised Search Ranking: “Google’s method of ranking of search results took a hit last week in…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: FCC chairman to propose plan for net neutrality: “The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to announce Wednesday…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Christian group asks Apple to reconsider app suspension: “A Christian organization that recently had its Apple iPhone app removed from Apple’s…
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Unions Still Hampering Free Trade
Watching politicians stammer on in attempts to justify short-sighted policy never gets boring. The interview referenced by Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Comcast: Internet service restored after regional outage: “Officials at Comcast Sunday night said they did not know what caused disruptions in its…
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WTO: For Trade Imbalances, Use Value Added For a More Accurate Picture
The World Trade Organization’s annual report released today is well worth reading, not only for the data on recent trade flows, economic and unemployment…
Blog
How Property Rights Saved the Pilgrims After the First Thanksgiving
In Reason Magazine, Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg write about how the establishment of property rights among the pilgrims made them more “industrious” and…
Blog
A New Course for Wild Tigers
A New York Times editorial highlights a struggle faced by the wild tiger, noting its population is down to approximately 3,200 from a high…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Wipeout: When Your Company Kills Your iPhone: “A few weeks ago, Amanda Stanton’s iPhone suddenly went black.” 34% of all malware…
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Obama Includes Toyota, Hyundai and Kia in 75,000 Jobs “Created” by GM Bailout
This post was coauthored by CEI Research Associate Andrew Kwiatkowski As we write, President Obama and Vice President Biden are doing a victory lap…
Blog
“Model” Foreign Aid Recipient Uses Foreign Aid to Repress Its Citizens
Ethiopia is considered a model recipient of foreign aid by international aid agencies, since it uses much of the aid on its people, rather than…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Facebook censors, cracksdown on breastfeeding photos: “In one of the photos that keeps getting Emma Kwasnica’s Facebook account suspended, the Montreal-based mother…
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High-Speed Rail in China: On Track for Failure
In recent years, Western media reports have been filled with fawning descriptions of China’s investment in high-speed bullet trains: “China Leads World In High-Speed…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: FCC chief on net neutrality: Trust me: “FCC chairman Julius Genachowski now finds himself caught between unfulfilled promises made to the tech…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: House bill would give DHS authority over private sector networks: “A new bill unveiled Wednesday by House Homeland Security…
Blog
Chinese Woman Sent to Labor Camp for Re-Tweet
When Cheng Jianping didn’t show up for her wedding ceremony on October 27th, her fiancé and family thought she’d gotten cold feet. But this week,…
Blog
Morning Media Summary
Tech: Sen. Rockefeller: FCC Should Take Fox News, MSNBC Off Airways: “SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV): “There’s a little bug inside of me which…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Internet Explorer 9 Caught Cheating in SunSpider Benchmark?: “A Mozilla engineer has uncovered something embarrassing for Microsoft – Internet Explorer is cheating…
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Spitzer, Seoul, and Wall Street
Eliot Spitzer, who occasionally publishes over at Slate, wrote yesterday about President Obama’s “disastrous Asia trip” and decried America’s fall from grace as a world leader.
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: University Begins Reporting All P2P Users to the Police: “Georgia’s Valdosta State University has updated its network with software that can…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Cubans upset at video game that aims to kill Fidel Castro: “Cuba’s state-run media and bloggers are not amused at “Call of…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Brumby promises every doctor in public hospitals an iPad: “Victorian Premier, John Brumby, yesterday promised every doctor in the…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Dear Starbucks: The skinny on how you can be a security hero: “The recent hubbub around Firesheep has provided me with a…
Blog
Russia’s Frozen Poulty Ban — Not Likely a Path for WTO Membership
Russia will be banning frozen chicken imports beginning January 1. The reason for the proposed ban? The head of the Russian agency in charge…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: LimeWire Resurrected By Secret Dev Team: “Last month, the Gnutella-based file-sharing client LimeWire was effectively outlawed after a U.S. federal judge granted…
Blog
Will Trade Be a Winner in the New Congress?
In its Sunday editorial, The Washington Post takes an upbeat post-election look at the prospects for stalled trade agreements, especially the pending U.S.-Korea Free…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Lamebook Sues Facebook Over Trademark Infringement. Wait, What?: “Here’s a head scratcher, at first glance at least: Lamebook , a hilarious advertising-supported…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: People have “right to be forgotten” online, says EU: “The European Commission wants to strengthen data protection rules to give more power…