A conservative think tank author warned of yet another government power grab.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [March 19, 2007]

Adam Thierer, conservative think tank pundit, came to the Freedom to Connect conference to talk about intrusive government. Thierer currently works for the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a conservative think tank funded by the electronics and telecommunications industries.

Thierer opened his talk by pointing to an FCC report he says has been overlooked, The Scarcity Rationale For Regulating Traditional Broadcasting: An Idea Whose Time Has Passed By John W. Berresford (.pdf). The paper says that the idea that spectrum was a scarce resource justified the FCC allocating it.

"Like any allocation system, this one would need clearly defined rights, a police force, and a dispute resolution system for allegations of interference, unauthorized operations, and other misconduct." (p.2)

The paper argues that the regulation of broadcast content should cease because the internet makes all points of view available. Customers worried about indecency, the paper argues, can use the V-Chip and filtering technology. There is no need to extend indecency regulation to the internet. "It may be, on the contrary, that the spread of new media, with hundreds of new channels, should cause regulation of indecency in traditional broadcasting to end." (p.29)

Common sense, please
Thierer said that while common sense would suggest that people can now block unwelcome content, the government is preparing a massive power grab and bureaucracy bloat, all in the name of protecting the children. "The FCC believes everything's pervasive," he said. "Does this mean everything's dangerous to children?"

"It's a familiar moral panic by old people about the pastimes of young people," Thierer said. "In a previous generation, it was roller rinks and burger joints." Today, it's IM and MySpace.

ISPs can and do play a role every day in responding to Amber Alerts, responding to subpoenas. ISPs can and do help.

But the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's Get Involved page asks nothing more of ISPs than a banner ad. The Center has no method of reporting how private enterprise is helping solve this problem. The Center, like most of government, exists to promulgate the law, and lacks an ear for listening. ISPs can help. ISPs do help. But they may not be offered the opportunity to do more.

Instead, the House is considering H.R. 837:

According to the bill (H.R. 837), ISPs would be required to retain, at a minimum, subscriber names, addresses, telephone numbers and internet protocol addresses to "permit compliance with court orders that may require production of such information."

This bill would immediately eliminate many mesh networks and new internet infrastructure projects and place a heavy cost burden on the rural broadband networks the government pretends to like (even as it raises the cost of running one and makes it ever more difficult to start a new ISP business).

The internet gives individuals more control over the content they see, and this could give the government a rationale for stepping back and regulating it less. But that's not what governments do. Thierer expects the deployment of infrastructure for a national ID, of biometrics, and of a something like the UK's National DNA Database.

You have been warned.

— End