The Heartland Institute

The Internet often is depicted as the bête noire of traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers. As soon as the traditional tech-savvy household plugged in a dial-up modem to a computer in the 1990s, consumers opened up their wallets, gave up credit-card numbers to Web-based retail operations, and waited at the door for UPS to ...

Apple’s attempts to jumpstart consumer interest in its e-readers have prompted the U.S. Department of Justice to announce it will bring an antitrust suit against the company and five of the nation’s largest publishers. The DoJ claims Apple colluded with the publishers to raise prices of book downloads. If the DoJ is successful ...

Privacy is one of our most cherished values, especially in this increasingly connected world. There is no question that we all want to be able to protect ourselves from harms or intrusions into our lives by the government or marketers. Some argue for new, invasive laws and government mandates to protect our privacy. But why ...

European Union regulations are impeding network investments by large telecom operators, according to an industry survey released in March. The frustration over burdensome regulations is prompting investor groups to call for reducing government controls on areas such as copper pricing, the report states. The London Financial Times ...

Growing concerns about cybersecurity threats have prompted a bipartisan group of U.S. senators to introduce legislation aimed at securing the country’s vital infrastructure. Private-sector companies that operate critical infrastructure systems, however, say the bill goes too far. The Cyber-Security Act of 2012 (S. 2105), introduced ...

AT& T revealed it may implement a pay plan that would force providers of mobile services to pay for the cost of data usage associated with streaming movies and smartphone applications. The announcement is perceived by industry analysts as indicating the company believes a U.S. District Court will overturn the Federal Communications ...

In a late-February filing, Verizon requested Federal Communications Commission approval of a $4 billion purchase of cable company wireless-spectrum licenses. In a separate FCC filing, Verizon requested permission to enter into cross-licensing agreements with the cable companies to sell each other’s services. Public Knowledge, a Washington ...

No one knows when the United States will run out of wireless spectrum, but many in the industry agree a crunch is coming. According to Federal Communications Commission estimates, the nation currently has a slight spectrum surplus, but it will turn into a deficit as early as next year. When spectrum runs short, service will ...

A Federal Communications Commission study concluding Missouri is below the national average in broadband Internet access has been refuted by a subsequent study conducted by the Missouri Public Service Commission. The FCC reported 86.5 percent of Missouri has access to broadband, with 11 percent to 13.5 percent of the population ...

Two bills designed to curtail regulatory overreach by the Federal Communications Commission await debate in Congress. The Federal Communications Commission Consolidated Reporting Act of 2011 (HR 3310) was introduced by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and is the companion to HR 3309, a bill introduced by Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) in November ...

Partly in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s handling of the Comcast-NBCU merger, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved two pieces of legislation that would prevent regulatory overreach by requiring any conditions imposed on transactions to be within the commission’s existing authority and be tailored ...

After deciding to scrap a program requiring elementary school students to wear heart-rate activity monitors due to a national outcry over privacy concerns, the Parkway School District in St. Louis County, Missouri has changed its mind again and will move ahead with plans to expand beyond the pilot phase conducted this spring ...

On January 31, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard testimony for and against changing the Video Privacy Protection Act, a law written to keep video-store rental lists secret. Netflix was among the proponents of changing the law, which currently prohibits the video rental company from sharing subscribers’ streaming content on ...

Recently, there has been much bandwidth consumed discussing the “New Digital Divide” and what to do about it. Law professor Susan Crawford wrote an essay for the New York Times entitled “The New Digital Divide,” which calls attention to what she sees as a gap between those with high-speed Internet and those without it. “Increasingly ...

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley’s (D) 2012 budget would impose taxes on digitally delivered goods and services and tax purchases made from out-of-state online retailers that rely on referrals from affiliates. The proposed budget is in bills introduced in the Maryland Senate and House in January. Under the governor’s proposal, digitally ...

Wilmington, North Carolina residents will be the first in the nation to have access to a "super wi-fi" network which operates using the “white space” between licensed channels. Technical experts, however, say the network will not provide legitimate wi-fi as it is commonly understood. Additionally, the bandwidth used to deploy ...

Approximately 59,000 American Indian students live in Arizona --approximately 5 percent of total student enrollment. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, Arizona’s American Indian students score below the state average on the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading and mathematics exams. American ...

A Saginaw, Michigan business owner says requiring customers to swipe their drivers’ license when topping off their tanks could stop drive-offs—clients leaving gas stations without paying. Privacy advocates, however, say the new “Post-Pay” method subjects innocent customers to potential identity theft. Bob Hohn, president of Paxson ...

The sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, Rep. Lamar Smith announced in late January he’s deferring action on the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution.” Maybe he’s just trying to save face after the Internet uproar against the bill at Wikipedia and elsewhere, but Smith, a Texas Republican, still seems to assume ...

Every January, tens of thousands of technology industry leaders travel to Las Vegas for the International Consumer Electronics Show. CES is one of the world’s largest and most exciting industry trade shows, the main forum where leading technology companies showcase their latest products and services and test new concepts still ...