The Progress & Freedom Foundation serves to educate Congress, policymakers and the public on policy issues relating to the digital revolution.  PFF regularly receives mention in national news outlets, wire services and trade publications.  A sampling is provided below.

This Month:

• "At Monday's Deadline, Industry, Advocacy Groups Weigh In on FCC Broadband Plan," Broadband Census, June 8, 2009
  "Facilities-based competition, rather than regulation should factor heavily into the commission's plans, Progress and Freedom Foundation President Ken Ferree and Senior Fellow Barbara Esbin wrote. Market forces and not regulation, should determine the level of openness and 'network intermediary functionality' available on any network, they added.
  "'There is no evidence of broad market failure justifying regulatory intervention in the majority of broadband markets,' Ferree and Esbin said in a related statement. 'Providers should have maximum flexibility to experiment with service offerings, rates, terms, and conditions to encourage competition.' The primary regulatory goal of the FCC should be to ensure Americans can access at least one broadband provider with 'broadband capability,' they said –  especially in currently unserved areas."
  "Fear of Government, Industry Control Prompts Calls for Continued NTIA Oversight," Washington Internet Daily, June 10, 2009
  "Some of the harshest criticism came from Michael Palage of Progress & Freedom Foundation, another former ICANN board member. He called for a new 'ICANN 3.0' governance model to restore the organization's original mission and incorporate 'lessons learned' since ICANN's creation, and said legislation may be needed to 'avoid kicking the JPA can down the road.'"
  "He urged ICANN to 'hardcode' into its policies and contracts the principle that its policies can't supersede national laws. He also advised ICANN to get away from operating technical infrastructure such as the .int and .arpa registries and the L Root server, and to focus on its job as DNS technical coordinator."
• "Newest Online Safety Group Will Report on Industry Efforts," Washington Internet Daily, June 5, 2009
  "The protection technology subcommittee will look at technology used today, attempt to determine a definition for 'effective,' and look at both content and contact, said chairman Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation. He [agreed] that one weakness of the Berkman report had been that technology vendors were unwilling to share the inner workings of their products. 'It would be nice to get beyond press releases,' he said. It might be that the subcommittee will need to seek counsel from academics or consultants who study the technologies and would speak more freely, he said.
• "Reform groups to FCC: more TV content ratings, please!," ArsTechnica, May 26, 2009
  "'There has never been a time in our nation's history when parents have had more tools and methods at their disposal to help them decide what constitutes acceptable media content in their homes and in the lives of their children,' noted Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation in his comments on this proceeding.
  "PFF's filing is 148 pages long, but anyone leaning towards more regulation in this area should give the commentary a read. A key point is that when Congress passed the Child Safe Viewing Act in 2007—asking the FCC to advise the government on the state of content filtering devices—it authorized this inquiry and no more.
  "'Does the Commission recognize any boundaries to the oversight authority it asserts in the name of investigating "advanced blocking technologies?"' Thierer asked. 'It certainly should.'"
  "PFF Argues Against COPPA 2.0 and Age Verification Mandates," Tech Law Journal, May 21, 2009
  "The Progress & Freedom Foundation (PFF) released a paper [36 pages in PDF] titled 'COPPA 2.0: The New Battle over Privacy, Age Verification, Online Safety & Free Speech.' The authors are the PFF's Berin Szoka and Adam Thierer.
  "This paper is a response to various proposals, some of which are manifested state legislative bills, to expand COPPA like regulatory regimes. The paper argues that such proposals are backdoor age verification mandates, and would raise First Amendment concerns, reduce online privacy, and conflict with the dormant commerce clause."
• "Podcast: Could expanding privacy law harm children?," CNET News, May 22, 2009 "A new report from the Progress & Freedom Foundation says that officials in some states want to pass legislation that would extend the Children Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) from covering children under 13 to covering teens until they're 18.
  "Expanding the law to cover teens till they're 18, according to the report, would 'require websites to obtain more information about both minors and their parents, which runs counter to the original goal of the Act: protecting the privacy of minors.' Ultimately, say the authors [Berin Szoka and Adam Thierer], 'this would actually make minors less "safe online."'"
• "Ex-Astronaut Is Top Candidate to Run NASA," The New York Times, May 16, 2009 Berin Szoka, a fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, a Washington research organization, said that if the ethics policy were consistently applied, General Bolden would recuse himself from issues that could affect Gencorp, and those would essentially include the entire Constellation program.
  "EU hits Intel With Antitrust Fine," Los Angeles Times, May 14, 2009
  "But Ken Ferree, president of the Progress & Freedom Foundation, said European regulators were on a dangerous path.
  "'It seems like the European competition policy is "bigness is badness." If you're big, there's something suspicious about you and you must be doing something evil to either get big or stay big,' he said. 'Sometimes it's true. But in and of itself, bigness is not badness. Many of the drivers of our economy are big companies.'"
• "EU Hits Intel with $1.45B Fine for Antitrust Violations," PC Magazine, May 13, 2009 Industry reaction was naturally polarized.
  "If you love jobs and economic growth, you have to love the companies that drive the economy and create employment demand," Ken Ferree, the president of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, said in a statement. "As U.S. policymakers review the EC decision, they should think carefully before adopting a competition policy that handicaps the very companies that are the key to sustaining this country's long-term economic health. Decisions like this do nothing to illuminate the path to a vibrant and growing economy, but rather obscure it."

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