[wos] fyi: The Digital Dirty Dozen

[Jeanette Hofmann]

gr=FCsse, jeanette


http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa423.pdf



                              The Digital Dirty Dozen
                       The Most Destructive High-Tech Legislative
                           Measures of the 107th Congress

                              by Wayne Crews and Adam Thierer 

                    Wayne Crews is director of technology policy and Adam =
Thierer is 
director of
                           telecommunications studies at the Cato Institut=
e.



                                 Executive Summary

                 The past year was a difficult one for the high-technology=
 and 
telecommunications sectors
                 of the U.S. economy. Massive layoffs, plunging stock pric=
es, dismal 
earning reports,
                 bankruptcies, and a host of other problems plagued this m=
arket. Market 
mania and the
                 general economic downturn were primary causes of the tech=
 sector's woes. 
Once bad
                 times hit, overinflated tech stocks experienced a meteori=
c fall.

                 It is worth considering whether some of the tech sector's=
 troubles can 
be linked to the
                 uncertainty caused by the threat of increasing regulation=
. Whereas 
legislative attitudes in
                 previous sessions of Congress were hands-off in nature, t=
he year 2001 
saw policymakers
                 introduce hundreds of bills that deal with tech policy ma=
tters.

                 Although very few of those bills were actually passed, th=
e tech sector 
finds itself at an
                 important crossroads: Will policymakers follow a hands-of=
f model that 
stresses humility and
                 regulatory restraint when dealing with cyberspace, leavin=
g most 
important decisions to
                 market forces? Or will they revert to the command-and-con=
trol model that 
has long
                 governed the telecom sector, with regulators molding the =
industry 
through endless
                 intervention in order to satisfy a public interest that t=
hey themselves 
define?

                 As shown in this review of our picks for the 12 most dest=
ructive pieces 
of technology
                 legislation introduced in the 107th Congress, there is go=
od evidence 
that
                 policymakers=97whether through conscious design or not=97=
are adopting the 
telecom
                 regulatory paradigm for the tech sector. It appears that =
the tech sector 
may be pigeonholed
                 into that paradigm simply because it offers a familiar se=
t of rules and 
a bank of regulatory
                 agencies that can be activated on command.

                 If that happens, it will be a grave blow to the Internet =
sector. 
Policymakers would be wise to
                 reject this paradigm and instead let the Internet and cyb=
erspace evolve 
with minimal federal
                 intrusion and regulatory interference.