TechBytes

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.

Now the Obama administration is turning its attention to solving the puzzle of why the Internet has been such a massive disappointment.

We all benefit when artists and creators invent, write, film and imagine. It’s also true that we all lose when piracy, whether via hacking or other means, is left to run rampant. 

Creating a different set of tax laws, different from those already in place for hotels or services, is moving in the wrong direction.

Technology is a tool that can be used for good or evil, to empower the state or empower the people. We must choose continued individual liberty.

Imagine the surprise that online customers will receive when the lame duck Senate massively expands government power via the Internet.

For our innovation economy to flourish, we need a robust, functioning patent system, and ending the litigation treadmill would play a positive role.

Liberty-based solutions are better than voiding or limiting contracts, and forcing others to surrender their property.

A tax increase is usually the result of Congress acting; in this case Americans will get an estimated $14.7 billion tax increase next year if Congress doesn't act—by passing an extension of the Internet Tax Freedom Act. The obstacle to this extension is Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has his own tax-increase legislation, the Mainstreet Fairness Act.

There is intense international pressure to have a UN-type organization take control of Internet governance, fundamentally changing ICANN into an international governmental regulatory agency.