Technology and foreign policy experts have mixed opinions on how the U.S. should handle challenges to innovation and its technology sector due to "harmful" Chinese trade and market practices. During an event Thursday hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), public and private sector speakers presented examples of China's market strategy and what it has done to American businesses, particularly in the areas of technology and the Internet. ITIF released its own report (here) on the topic Thursday.

Technology and foreign policy experts have mixed opinions on how the U.S. should handle challenges to innovation and its technology sector due to "harmful" Chinese trade and market practices. During an event Thursday hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), public and private sector speakers presented examples of China's market strategy and what it has done to American businesses, particularly in the areas of technology and the Internet. ITIF released its own report on the topic Thursday.

Technology and foreign policy experts have mixed opinions on how the U.S. should handle challenges to innovation and its technology sector due to "harmful" Chinese trade and market practices. During an event Thursday hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), public and private sector speakers presented examples of China's market strategy and what it has done to American businesses, particularly in the areas of technology and the Internet. ITIF released its own report on the topic Thursday.

Technology and foreign policy experts have mixed opinions on how the U.S. should handle challenges to innovation and its technology sector due to "harmful" Chinese trade and market practices. During an event Thursday hosted by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), public and private sector speakers presented examples of China's market strategy and what it has done to American businesses, particularly in the areas of technology and the Internet. ITIF released its own report on the topic Thursday.

FCC designated entity bidding credits in spectrum auctions should be scrapped, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in a blog post emailed to us Wednesday. Brake said the DE program to foster small business wireless entry hadn't worked well and he questioned whether it even made sense in today's mobile market, where size matters. He said the DE program was a good example of a dynamic described in "The Miasma of Regulation," a 1987 essay by Robert Reich (who later became U.S. labor secretary), which laid out "the cat-and-mouse game" in which regulators write rules and the regulated push the envelope, with the back-and-forth generating more complicated rules that confound American business. Brake said the recent controversy over Dish Network's relationship with two entities in the AWS-3 auction is just the latest controversy. The DE program may have made sense in the 1990s when it started, Brake said, but small businesses today face bigger challenges in launching a network and competing with entrenched national wireless carriers. "I have a hard time seeing a small business breaking into this market in a meaningful way, even with steeply discounted spectrum," which is "just a small fraction of the cost" of building a network, he said. "New entrants to the broadband access business will be the ones with radically disruptive technology, not a discount on one input. The DE program has a history of either being manipulated by large companies, or heaping largess on individual insiders who reap the upside with large profits and incomes."

FCC designated entity bidding credits in spectrum auctions should be scrapped, said Doug Brake, telecom policy analyst at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, in a blog post emailed to us Wednesday. Brake said the DE program to foster small business wireless entry hadn't worked well and he questioned whether it even made sense in today's mobile market, where size matters. He said the DE program was a good example of a dynamic described in "The Miasma of Regulation," a 1987 essay by Robert Reich (who later became U.S. labor secretary), which laid out "the cat-and-mouse game" in which regulators write rules and the regulated push the envelope, with the back-and-forth generating more complicated rules that confound American business. Brake said the recent controversy over Dish Network's relationship with two entities in the AWS-3 auction is just the latest controversy. The DE program may have made sense in the 1990s when it started, Brake said, but small businesses today face bigger challenges in launching a network and competing with entrenched national wireless carriers. "I have a hard time seeing a small business breaking into this market in a meaningful way, even with steeply discounted spectrum," which is "just a small fraction of the cost" of building a network, he said. "New entrants to the broadband access business will be the ones with radically disruptive technology, not a discount on one input. The DE program has a history of either being manipulated by large companies, or heaping largess on individual insiders who reap the upside with large profits and incomes."

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released a report Thursday on the “Privacy Panic Cycle,” named after the phenomenon the report's authors, ITIF IT Vice President Daniel Castro and Research Assistant Alan McQuinn, say occurs when new technologies are introduced. It’s striking how often the same old privacy arguments are brought up when new technology appears, Castro said. Privacy experts who reviewed the report before its release raised some concerns with its findings during an ITIF event Thursday, calling it a road map the government could use to rebut anyone who criticizes its mass surveillance programs.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation released a report Thursday on the “Privacy Panic Cycle,” named after the phenomenon the report's authors, ITIF IT Vice President Daniel Castro and Research Assistant Alan McQuinn, say occurs when new technologies are introduced. It’s striking how often the same old privacy arguments are brought up when new technology appears, Castro said. Privacy experts who reviewed the report before its release raised some concerns with its findings during an ITIF event Thursday, calling it a road map the government could use to rebut anyone who criticizes its mass surveillance programs.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) urged the FTC in comments filed with the commission last week, to support the sharing economy by taking a light-handed regulatory approach and fighting "anti-competitive laws" tailored to incumbent businesses. The comments are among nearly 2,000 filings submitted to the FTC in response to its June workshop on various issues raised by the sharing economy (see 1508050043). The FTC should launch an effort "to use its authority to provide continuous oversight of anticompetitive regulations that impede innovation in the market" by identifying policies that limit the sharing economy and recommending changes "to ensure that competition in the sharing economy flourishes," ITIF said.

The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) urged the FTC in comments filed with the commission last week, to support the sharing economy by taking a light-handed regulatory approach and fighting "anti-competitive laws" tailored to incumbent businesses. The comments are among nearly 2,000 filings submitted to the FTC in response to its June workshop on various issues raised by the sharing economy (see 1508050043). The FTC should launch an effort "to use its authority to provide continuous oversight of anticompetitive regulations that impede innovation in the market" by identifying policies that limit the sharing economy and recommending changes "to ensure that competition in the sharing economy flourishes," ITIF said.