FYI.  These two are new hires at Cato who are pretty crackerjack at what they 
do.  Cato must be raising good money from this sector.

- Rob

----- Forwarded by Rob Bradley/Corp/Enron on 04/03/2001 04:47 PM -----

	"Adam Thierer" <athierer@cato.org>
	04/03/2001 03:25 PM
	Please respond to athierer
		 
		 To: "Adam Thierer" <athierer@cato.org>
		 cc: 
		 Subject: Cato TechKnowledge #1: A Libertarian Vision




???  Friends...????We are happy to bring you  Issue #1 of the Cato 
Institute's new technology and telecom?policy  newsletter TechKnowledge. 
These periodic commentaries?will  feature?the insights?of Cato 
scholars?on?high-tech issues in  the news. While our first issue provides a 
general overview of?our general  philosophical vision, subsequent editions 
will apply this framework to a wide  array of specific public policy 
matters.?An archive of  all past editions will also be available on our web 
site at www.cato.org?within the Telecom &  Technology subdirectory.?We hope 
you enjoy these commentaries, but if for  any reason you do not care to 
receive them in?the future, just let us know.  Thanks - - Adam Thierer

?

?[IMAGE]

Issue #1

April 3, 2001?

The Libertarian Vision for Telecom and  High-Technology
by Adam Thierer and Wayne  Crews?

???????????  The technology and telecommunications sectors of the American 
economy are  increasingly under assault by politicians and regulators at all 
levels of  government ) local, state, federal, and international. Although 
the  Telecommunications Act of 1996 reflected a growing consensus that 
competition  and deregulation would bring tremendous benefits to consumers 
and entrepreneurs  alike, the Act not only fell well short of this goal, but 
has actually resulted  in increased micro-management of the communications 
industry. Worse yet,  policymakers show an increasing willingness to extend 
the misguided regulatory  legacy of the past to cover the Internet and other 
emerging technologies within  the information services marketplace. 

???????????  Policymakers must resist the urge to treat existing and emerging 
markets  and technologies as their political playthings. Fresh thinking is 
needed and  this thinking should be guided by three simple principles as 
policymakers  consider how the Internet and the high-technology sector should 
be governed:  

Principle #1 ) First, Do No Harm: Just as this sound principle governs  the 
medical profession, so too should such a &High-Tech Hippocratic Oath8 guide  
public policymakers. The pace of technological change in this sector makes 
it  almost impossible to establish timely policies that won,t be outdated as 
soon as  they are put into place. While both entrepreneurs and  industry 
giants can sometimes move at cyber-speed to avoid rapid technological  
obsolescence, it is apparent that governments and legislatures cannot. That,
s  the contrast between &Moore,s Law8 and &Murphy,s Law.8 

Computer and  communications firms have been forced to come to terms with the 
reality of  &Moore,s Law,8 which holds that the computing power doubles 
roughly every 18  months while its price falls by an equally dramatic margin 
over the same period.  In other words, they have to reinvent the wheel every 
year-and-a-half if they  want to stay on top of their game. 

However, lawmaking is often beset by &Murphy,s Law8*  anything that can go 
wrong, will go wrong. Moreover, even the most  well-intentioned efforts will 
likely take so long to move through the  legislative &sausage factory8 that 
most statutes or regulations will be obsolete  or redundant by the time they 
finally take effect. Put simply, &Internet time8  and &Washington time8 are 
measured by two very different clocks.  Policymakers must avoid quick fixes 
and supposedly simple political  solutions to the complex problems posed by 
the realities of the new digital  economy. 

Principle #2 ) Be Patient: The second principle policymakers  should heed 
when considering high-tech policies is to exercise patience and  regulatory 
restraint; to be willing to wait for the good results they allegedly  seek, 
to develop naturally. This is not always easy in a town that believes  there 
is a short-term political solution to every problem. Many politicians provide 
lip service to the benefits of the  market and self-regulation, but then act 
to subvert the will of companies and  consumers by imposing haphazard 
top-down regulatory solutions and protectionist  regulation. 

Policymakers must avoid activism and recognize their own  ignorance. They 
should not attempt to impose market structures or determine  outcomes. 
Instead they should respect the natural discovery process of the free  
market, and the spontaneous ordering of our fast-paced technological society. 
As  these markets expand, evolve and mature, they will exceed any top-down 
creation  of politicians.

Principle  #3 ) Embrace  Change: Finally,  policymakers must embrace 
technological change and its revolutionary nature.  Learning to live with 
change is never easy. Firms, technologies, even entire  industry sectors can 
rise and fall in a very short period of time. One day, CB  radio and 8-track 
tapes are the hottest technology in the land; the next, they  are as dated as 
disco dancing and bell-bottoms. 

???????????  But sometimes such failure is a good thing. Yesterday,s 
industrial  giant becomes today,s also-ran. Whether it,s IBM in the +70s or 
Microsoft in the  +90s, no firm or technology can expect to remain king of 
the hill for long. In  fact, if there,s one constant in the Internet world, 
it,s change. The New  Economy is characterized by extreme volatility: the 
ongoing stock market roller  coaster; techno fads; rapid technological 
obsolescence; etc. In fact, tomorrow,s  Internet is not likely to be the 
Internet we know today. 

???????????  Consequently, policymakers must realize that the Internet and 
the  high-tech sector will challenge previous policies, existing programs, 
older  institutions, and well-established industries. Legislators must be 
willing to  change existing structures, laws, or political norms to 
accommodate or foster  the ongoing expansion of the New Economy. While some 
Old Economy interests may  not like the emergence of these new industry 
sectors and technologies, policymakers must not allow older companies to use  
old or new laws and regulations as a tool against their new competitors. The  
history of communications industry regulation is littered with lamentable 
tales  of one industry sector using the club of regulation to beat their 
competitors  into submission. Policymakers must reject such Luddite 
proposals. 

These simple principles  should guide any telecommunications or technology 
policy debates that arise.  More specifically, these principles can be 
translated into a more concrete set  of commandments for policymakers to 
follow:

(1) Any individual or entity should be free to create and offer to  the 
public any technological good or communications service they want, whenever  
they want, however they want, and on whatever terms they and their customers  
find mutually agreeable. 

(2) No individual or entity has a natural, inalienable right or  entitlement 
to a specific technological good or telecommunications service.

(3) Free speech rights and the First Amendment are of paramount  importance 
to individual liberty and should be fully honored and protected  against 
government interference. 

(4) Rather than impose administrative rules, policymakers should  respect 
private property rights; unhindered freedom of contract; voluntary  
negotiations and standard-setting; private dispute resolution; other common 
law  standards such as the law of trespass and torts; and the proper 
interpretation  of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution as a guarantor of 
the free flow of  interstate commerce.???  

The Cato Institute,s  Tech Knowledge series of commentaries will seek to 
apply this libertarian  framework to the exploding universe of 
high-technology policy issues in a  consistent and ongoing manner.

________________________

???????????????  Adam Thierer is the Director of Telecommunications Studies 
and Wayne  Crews the Director of Technology Studies at the Cato Institute in 
Washington,  D.C. (www.cato.org) 

?

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