TechBytes

Last week state elected officials swarmed Capitol Hill to pressure Congress to support the so-called Marketplace Fairness Act. Congress owes the country an open, recorded debate before risking the United of our United States.

The U.S. will need to hang tough in the global debate about who controls the Internet, stay committed to its fundamental principles, and perhaps convince the members of the ITU that only a unanimous vote will change the rules so that a block of repressive regimes cannot force a change. If not the only option may be a disconnecting from the global Internet.

Just as competitors lobbied to have the government restrict Microsoft in the 1990s others are now lobbying to harm Google by trying to convince the iron hand of government to squeeze the company and limit its competitive abilities.

It was jaw dropping to see a paper appear on the website of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) that was infused with much of the rhetoric and many of the assumptions of the CopyLeft movement. When an RSC paper is praised on the Daily Kos website, you have to wonder what is going on.

Let’s start to put “tech” issues front and center in our national policy debates.

If the country needs a model for how different sides can work out their differences, it might look to a recent agreement forged in the biotech seed industry.

Governor Haslam of Tennessee was “surprised” to hear he had a failing fiscal grade and has argued that his tax increases were for the kids. When a politician uses kids as defense, grab your liberties and your wallet, as you are about to lose at least one. In this case, in the Main Street Fairness Act, politicians have found a way to take both.

What is driving the tech boom is an entrepreneurial, can-do spirit, relentless innovation, and in many of the most dynamic areas, a light-touch regulatory approach, not the occupant of the White House.

Reducing deaths due to smoking is obviously a Good Intention, and there are many ways to do so without destroying the value of trademarks. But when policy makers travel to the Land of Good Intentions, precedents get set that threaten the rights of all.

Markets abhor uncertainty and regulatory uncertainty results in reduced investment, innovation, opportunity and benefit to consumers.