CIS' Lauren Gelman and Stanford Law student Rob Courtney drafted and filed reply comments on the FCC's Broadcast Flag regulation on behalf of twenty-one technology companies organized by Public Knowledge.
The Main Point:
[E]lements of the proposed Rule, and some of the suggestions made in the comments, would help freeze our current low rate of innovation in place. In fact, some elements of the proposed Rule would completely cut off some of the most promising areas of software research and innovation—particularly in the areas of proprietary and open-source content management, software demodulation, and after-market modifiable software—and decimate current efforts to advance other general purpose computing techniques.
This will result in significant harm to innovation and to the US economy, based on mere speculation of harm by industries with an obvious interest in stifling new technologies that threaten their current business plans.
The conclusion:
Regulating technology is always difficult because it advances certain ideas and halts the progress of others. Government is never the best positioned to choose winners and losers, that’s why rules like the one proposed here should only be adopted when there is a concrete showing of harm, and no more narrowly tailored means to address it.
Lay-offs are increasing, funding for new initiatives is barely trickling in, and many companies are moving overseas where the regulatory burden is easier. This is not the time for the Commission to take radical steps that outlaw technologies and cut off areas of research. We ask that you take these issues into account as you decide how to proceed in this matter.