Communications

The SEC is holding up ECPA reform in an attempt to parlay more agency power, demanding a carve-out in any updated ECPA bill that would give the agency power to access your data without a warrant. 

Speaker Ryan has an opportunity to make his mark by moving pieces of legislation that are relatively non-controversial and have broad support. The most obvious candidate is the Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA), set to expire Dec. 11, which bans taxes on Internet access and bans taxes that discriminate against ecommerce.

Institute for Policy Innovation research fellow Bartlett Cleland slammed the FCC's "mission creep," discussing the Tuesday FCC oversight hearing before the House Communications Subcommittee.

But free-market-oriented IPI said Charter/TWC/BHN should go ahead "with the addition of conditions and concessions." Given the heavy competition in the video marketplace, IPI said, "fears that a post-merger Charter will wield overwhelming market power such that it will be able to quash such competition seems more based in Progressive Era general distrust of corporations than any informed understanding of the current video marketplace and the obvious current trends."

At long last, the Senate Judiciary Committee will finally hold a hearing tomorrow to discuss reforming the outdated 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, an urgent and necessary step to uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights guarding against warrantless search and seizure of electronic data.

The FCC's net neutrality regulatory order has resulted in a massive hit to U.S. economic investment, and there is every reason to expect it to continue, writes IPI president Tom Giovanetti in RealClearMarkets. It's yet another self-inflicted wound on our economy through poor policy decisions.

Updating ECPA for the Internet Age would allow Congress to show that it is sensitive to Americans’ privacy concerns and to reaffirm our Fourth Amendment protections. 

At the end of the 113th Congress, lawmakers kicked the proverbial can down the road when they left the issue of taxing internet access to the 114th Congress.  Will 2015 be the year something changes?

The FCC has forsaken its mandate to be both expert and independent, Congress now has every reason to gut the FCC and radically downsize its regulatory scope and authority.

Regulating before we even understand if regulations are needed, what ends regulations might serve, what the challenges might be, or even a useful definition of what would be regulated  would be foolish at best, and likely to impede innovation.