This year lawmakers and regulators failed to earn high marks for productivity in regard to tech-related issues. Though there was a lot of noise, in the end it proved to be all sound and fury, signifying nothing--or at least relatively little.
The Federal Communications Commission did hand down several rulings, most recently one that protects user rights to Wi-Fi services and safeguards consumer choice.
The U.S. Supreme Court's updated rules on electronic evidence, which went into effect on December 1, require that companies keep electronic data--e-mail, IM, and the like--much as they would hang on to paper documents that they might be instructed to produce in a lawsuit. The requirement will certainly impact businesses and their employees, increasing the potential cost of storage for all the documents that must now be maintained, and perhaps also encouraging companies to more closely monitor their employees' communications.
Congress in its last session also passed a law (the U.S. SAFE WEB Act) that allows greater cooperation among the Federal Trade Commission, its counterparts overseas, and law enforcement to help combat spam, spyware, and the like.
Much Work Remains
Nevertheless, the lack of concrete progress on such significant problems as net neutrality, telecommunications reform, and privacy protection means Congress has its work cut out for it after the holidays.
Here's my take on which items should rise to the top of the Beltway crowd's 2007 to-do list:
1) Clarify the meaning of fair use of digital media. We've been muddling along on this issue for years now, and significant questions remain unanswered. What, exactly, do you have the right to do with a DVD, a CD, or music you've paid to download? Due to copy protection technologies, you no longer can do a number of things you once could with analog media--and some of those things are now illegal, too. But you and I should have a certain degree of freedom to transfer our legally purchased entertainment from one playback device to another without having to repurchase it; we should also be able to back it up so that we don't lose our investment. We need clear legislation or regulation that spells out what we're entitled to and preserves the rights we used to have.
2) Ensure net neutrality. We've heard both sides of the argument--but the bottom line is, both businesses and consumers already pay for bandwidth they use, as well as for general Internet access. The speed-based tiered service that some cable and DSL providers want to introduce would create even more disparity between the haves and have-nots in the digital world, and could potentially stifle innovation because it would inevitably favor established players that have the cash to pay for preferential treatment.
3) Regulate data brokers. This one has been brewing for a few years now. The sorts of scandals that originally put a spotlight on the matter are no longer making headlines as frequently as they once did, but the problem persists. All sorts of companies gather information about you and sell that information. These firms exist in many fields, not just health and finance. They need regulation. Standards should govern the security, storage, sale, and disclosure of the data collected. Also required are basic privacy guidelines that give you some degree of control over who has your information and what they can do with it.
4) Overhaul cable and telecommunications rules. I admit it, there's a selfish component to this. I'm excited by the possibilities inherent in IP-based services (virtually limitless video on demand, varied camera angles for sports and movies, integrated telephony services, access to the whole Internet's worth of content, and more). I want to get those services--and I want to see the fiber optics that will make such services truly viable spread as far and wide as they can be, as quickly as possible. Voice, data, cellular, and video services have been converging for years, so the regulations that govern these industries should similarly converge. I'm hoping we'll end up with a more streamlined process for licensing video franchises, a more competitive landscape, and some fair standards for levels of service nationwide. Oh, and if we can get pay-TV à la carte while we're at it, so much the better.
5) Fix digital identity cards. The Real ID bill was signed into law in 2005 with little discussion and, seemingly, just as little thought. We're now supposedly 18 months away from the first implementation of these national identification cards, yet so many questions remain unanswered that it's shameful, even by government standards. Privacy guidelines have not been set, technology hasn't been determined, the true-cost estimates vary wildly--the list goes on. Moreover, we're also preparing to replace our passports with ones that have RFID tags, and the safeguards for those are still a little murky as well. Politicians will have to obtain their own ID cards and passports, too, so you'd think they'd be in more of a hurry to get the technologies right.
Given Washington's track record, it will be something of a miracle if Congress addresses even one of these items next year. But who knows--maybe our legislators will surprise us.
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