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January 2008
  • "Online Video Distributors Open to Filtering Discussion," Communications Daily, January 31, 2008
    "FCC indecency enforcement against broadcasters isn't limiting children's access to objectionable programming, said Adam Thierer of Progress and Freedom Foundation. 'The FCC shot itself in the foot,' drawing additional attention to a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue before 10 p.m. in the Central time zone by fining ABC affiliates for showing it (CD Jan 28 p1), he said. 'It's insanity,' he said. 'If we're out to protect kids, we're not doing it if we protect adults from themselves.'"
  • "Merchants Battle New Mexico Plans To Tax Games," TechDaily, January 29, 2008
    "Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, said the New Mexico proposal is likely to raise many of the same First Amendment issues because of how it targets games. But he also said he expects state lawmakers will continue to float new ideas to curtail sales of controversial games to underage buyers.
    "'Anytime the government seeks to tax a form of media or speech, it runs into some sticky issue,' Thierer said. 'That's clearly going to be the case again with regards to videogames.'"
  • "MySpace's Shaky Safety Balance," Forbes, January 14, 2008
    "'I think there's a lot to praise in the steps MySpace is taking, but there's one tricky element,' says Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation(PFF). 'If there's a massive registry of children's email addresses, the question is, who has it, what's being done with it, and is it secure?'
    "If such a list were created, Thierer argues, it could be vulnerable to falling into the hands of spammers or marketers."
    "MySpace, States Propose Principles To Protect Youths Online," CNNMoney, January 14, 2008
    "'The AGs, I believe, have a preordained conclusion of the wisdom of implementing online age verification,' said Thierer, senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a tech think tank. By contrast, he says, MySpace sounds more like it's expecting to examine the issue from a technical, legal and social policy perspective.
    "'There's always been the threat of legal action hanging like the sword of Damocles over social networking sites and MySpace in particular,' Thierer said. 'It has not fallen yet probably because the AGs are smart enough to know they don't have as good a case as they'd like if they go the litigation route.'"
  • "The Search Party," The New Yorker, January 14, 2008 "Last August, [Google CEO] Schmidt flew his own jet, a Gulfstream G550, to Aspen to give the keynote dinner speech to the free-market-oriented Progress & Freedom Foundation. He outlined four 'basic principles' that he believes are vital for media and technology companies to embrace, among them freedom of speech and assuring universal broadband access."
  • "Investors, Observers Uneasy As DoJ Mulls XM-Sirius Merger," Ars Technica, January 10, 2008
    "The central, perhaps dispositive, question that regulators must decide is whether XM-Sirius would constitute a monopoly in its market."
    "'Boxing things into old sectoral definitions like "traditional broadcasting'" or "radio broadcasting" and so on doesn't make a lot of sense anymore,' says Adam Thierer of the Progress and Freedom Foundation, 'What we're really talking about is audible entertainment and news, and that's a huge category of companies that are competing for the attention of our ears.'"


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