{"id":23818,"date":"2016-05-25T12:22:59","date_gmt":"2016-05-25T16:22:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=23818"},"modified":"2016-05-25T12:25:16","modified_gmt":"2016-05-25T16:25:16","slug":"former-clinton-administration-official-rips-fccs-set-top-box-proposal-as-massive-new-federal-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/23818\/former-clinton-administration-official-rips-fccs-set-top-box-proposal-as-massive-new-federal-regulation\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Clinton Administration Official Rips FCC’s Set-Top Box Proposal as “Massive New Federal Regulation”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alongside nearly every other conservative and libertarian organization of which we’re aware, CFIF opposes a toxic and wholly unnecessary new proposal<\/a> from the Obama Administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate cable television set-top boxes before the clock runs out on the Obama presidency.<\/p>\n

But opposition extends across the political spectrum. \u00a0In today’s Wall Street Journal<\/em>, former Clinton Administration Undersecretary of Commerce Ev Ehrlich excoriates the FCC’s proposed set-top box regulation<\/a> for what it is — a crony capitalist, purloining, invasive, already-obsolete, anti-competitive, “massive new federal regulation”:<\/p>\n

The Federal Communications Commission wants you, the consumer, to allow a new set-top box into your home that rearranges the programs you buy and inserts new advertising while tracking what you watch. \u00a0Movie studios, labor unions and civil rights groups all oppose it. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Because this ‘All-Vid’ proposal isn’t about the box fees the senators-turned-lobbyists decry. \u00a0Instead, it’s all about appropriating content. \u00a0Google and Amazon want to capture, repackage and profit from TV programming in their own competing services without having to pay for it…<\/p>\n

If Google, Amazon or anyone else wants to build a better set-top box, they can do so the way these services have – in a way that respects federal privacy laws and negotiated licensing agreements with program producers. \u00a0Or they can actually license the content from creators, the way everybody else does, as opposed to demanding a gift from a captive FCC.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. Ehrlich gets it exactly right.<\/p>\n

As we have stated, there is simply no realm of American life today that manifests badly-needed innovation, consumer choice, quality, affordability and sheer enjoyment than the video entertainment sector. \u00a0The variety and excellence of today’s video choices continues to expand at breakneck speed on (literally) a daily basis. \u00a0We therefore ask officials at all levels of government, as well as our 250,000 supporters and activists across the country, to oppose what Mr. Ehrlich rightly describes as a looming federal atrocity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alongside nearly every other conservative and libertarian organization of which we’re aware, CFIF opposes a toxic and wholly unnecessary new proposal from the Obama Administration’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to regulate cable television set-top boxes before the clock runs out on the Obama presidency. But opposition extends across the political spectrum. \u00a0In today’s Wall Street […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[188,346,4847],"class_list":["post-23818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-fcc","tag-federal-communications-commission","tag-set-top-box"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23818"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23820,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23818\/revisions\/23820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}