The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a market-oriented think tank that studies the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. Its mission is to educate policymakers, opinion leaders and the public about issues associated with technological change, based on a philosophy of limited government, free markets and individual sovereignty.
PFF's research combines academic analysis with a practical understanding of how public policy is actually made. Its senior fellows and other scholars are leading experts in their fields, with distinguished careers in government, business, academia and public policy. Its research is substantive, scholarly and unbiased. At the same time, PFF is focused on having an impact on public policy.
PFF's underlying philosophy combines an appreciation for the positive impacts of technology with a classically conservative view of the proper role of government. We believe that the technological change embodied in the digital revolution has created tremendous opportunities for enhanced individual liberty, as well as wealth creation and higher living standards. Those opportunities can only be realized if governments resist the temptation to regulate, tax and control. Government has important roles to play in society, including protecting property rights and individual liberties, but its tendency is to reach beyond its legitimate functions in ways that harm consumers, burden citizens and slow progress.
PFF is an effective voice for market-oriented policy in a variety of key issue areas. Among its contributions:
- Leading the intellectual battle for true deregulation of communications markets, including immediate deregulation of broadband services, and forbearance from regulation of wireless communications and the Internet.
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Explaining the imperative to protect rich digital content and encourage innovation through the traditional legal notions of copyright and patent.
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Urging private solutions to help reduce digital piracy and increase the availability of rich digital content, without government mandates.
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Explaining the need for lower taxes on telecommunications services, a tax moratorium for Internet commerce and privatization of government-run cable TV and telephone companies.
- Maximizing media freedom both in a structural (business) sense and a social (speech-related) sense, thus removing the shackles that limit the market flexibility of media operators, while ensuring freedom of speech and expression throughout society.
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Promoting competition in electricity markets, using demand-side, deregulatory market mechanisms rather than pervasive and costly government regulatory schemes.
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Advocating antitrust over regulation in the software market.
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Applying benefit-cost analysis to proposals for regulation of the market for personal information, and showing why severe regulations will not protect online privacy.
For ten years, from the beginning of the Internet Revolution in 1993, through the high-tech meltdown of 2000-2002 and beyond, PFF has been a consistent voice for a market-oriented approach to capturing the opportunities presented by technological progress.
Located in Washington, DC, The Progress & Freedom Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1993.
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