Popular Media Archives - International Center for Law & Economics

September 28, 2020

tl;dr - Section 230 Reform Summaries

Kristian Stout & Ben Sperry

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has come under close scrutiny. Section 230 provides important immunity to online platforms for the content of third-party users.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

September 21, 2020

tl;dr - Data Portability: The costs of imposed openness

Samuel Bowman

Many competition agencies are considering data portability mandates to increase competition. These would require companies to make customers’ data available to move to other services, or to make their services interoperable with others so that users could share their data between different services on an ongoing basis.

Data Security & Privacy

September 10, 2020

tl;dr - Ending Qualified Immunity

Ben Sperry

Criminal justice reform efforts should focus on ending qualified immunity and restoring the constitutional balance between empowering officers to protect the public while also deterring violations of civil liberties.

September 4, 2020

tl;dr - NTIA § 230 FCC Petition: A Poor Solution to an Ill-Defined Problem

Kristian Stout

While there are possible useful reforms to be made to Section 230, forcing major changes to an important law on the basis of a political quarrel would let petty politics reshape one of the most important laws that governs the Internet.

Telecommunications

August 31, 2020

tl;dr - Do injunctions for patents promote or impede innovation?

Julian Morris & Dirk Auer

Over the past 15 years, court decisions have weakened patent protections in the US. While some academics support such weakening, the evidence suggests that it may be having a detrimental effect on innovation.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

August 25, 2020

tl;dr - The First Amendment and Section 230: Protecting free speech on the internet

Ben Sperry

The First Amendment and Section 230 immunity work together to protect free speech on the Internet. Attempts at Section 230 reform based on how online platforms use their editorial discretion will run into Constitutional limitations.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 21, 2020

tl;dr - Vertical integration: economies of scope

Samuel Bowman & Geoffrey A. Manne

Vertical integration allows businesses to innovate more. It may be bad for certain competitors, but it is rarely bad for competition.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 21, 2020

tl;dr - Competition in digital platform markets: a question of definitions

Samuel Bowman & Geoffrey A. Manne

Competition is strong in digital markets, but traditional antitrust tools may miss competitive nuances in these markets.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

July 21, 2020

tl;dr - Self-preferencing: building an ecosystem

Samuel Bowman & Geoffrey A. Manne

“Self-preferencing” is a normal part of how platforms operate, both to improve the value of their core product and to make money from it so that they have a reason to keep investing in it.

Antitrust & Consumer Protection

Resources: popular media