The FCC has published its notice of proposed rule-making on net neutrality rules (see also News Release, Genachowski Statement, Staff Presentation). Under the draft proposed rules, subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service: 1. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from sending or receiving the lawful content of the user’s choice over the Internet; 2. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from running the lawful applications or using the lawful services of the user’s choice; 3. would not be allowed to prevent any of its users from connecting to and using on its network the user’s choice of lawful devices that do not harm the network; 4. […]
The DOJ and FTC have filed a joint statement of interest in respect of the proposed Google Books settlement. It’s noteworthy for a couple of things. First, they agreed a joint response. Given relations between the FTC and DOJ in recent years, that’s already an achievement. I met Tom Barnett’s chief of staff for an informal chat last September, and he said that even if there were a change in administration, he did not anticipate a fundamental change in enforcement policy, given that the DOJ staff largely agreed with the then enforcement policy. In light of the comments from Christine Varney and Jon Leibowitz in recent months – repeated again at Fordham last week – and in light of the […]
At the 2009 Fordham Antitrust conference, there was a long session on EU and US approaches to the control of state aid (state subsidies), in the context of the financial and economic crisis. The EU has an extensive State aid control regime, which requires notification to the European Commission of any aid that may distort competition and that affects inter-state trade. One of the US panelists indicated that there was no mechanism under US law to enforce a similar control over state aid by US states, and nor could there be. I had understood that the US commerce clause (whereby Congress shall have power “to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;”) […]
<blockquote>That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. Clay Shirky, <a href=”http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/”>Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable</a>, March 2009</blockquote> Different people draw different conclusions about law-making from this type of problem. For some, we cannot reasonably hope to understand the consequences of law or regulation in a fast-moving world, so we should avoid trying. (Though those who argue that we be slow to apply the antitrust rules in these areas, may also be the same people who argue for the introduction of software patents. What’s sauce for the goose is often not sauce for the gander.) At the 2009 Fordham antitrust conference, John Fingleton, the CEO of […]
