FCC's 'Permission-Denied' Policy for Video Devices Is Wrong
by
Randolph J. May * and Seth L. Cooper **
February 2, 2016
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is proposing new regulations to mandate a uniform technical design for set-top TV boxes - the device you probably refer to as the VCR. The problem is that nobody uses VCRs anymore. The agency wants to press the rewind button by resurrecting its 1990s analog-era cable set-top box rules and superimposing them on today's vibrant digital video device market.
Having the government design digital video devices is folly. The government-prescribed technical mandates would substitute bureaucratic preferences for the freedom to innovate. Regulation would largely displace arms-length negotiated agreements among manufacturers, content owners and video service providers over security and intellectual property rights.
What's more, the government mandates contemplated by the FCC likely violate the First Amendment by displacing the video service providers' editorial judgments regarding video menus and the arrangement of related content displays. The FCC would require video service
providers to disaggregate video displays and menu products into prescribed outputs for third parties to reassemble and rebrand. This infringes upon the free speech rights of the video service providers.
The current array of consumer choice among cable, direct broadcast satellite (DBS), and telephone companies for video services renders farfetched any anti-competitive claims as justification for new device regulations. The case for marketplace freedom is cemented by the availability of separate, alternative platforms offered by new online video distributors (OVDs) and digital streaming media services and devices.
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Read the entire piece: http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/technology/267778-fccs-permission-denied-policy-for-video-devices-is-wrong
* Randolph J. May is President of the Free State Foundation, an independent free market-oriented think tank located in Rockville, Maryland. FCC's 'Permission-Denied' Policy for Video Devices Is Wrong was published in The Hill on February 2, 2016.
** Seth L. Cooper is a Senior Fellow of the Free State Foundation.
