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About
Us
The
Cato Institute's departments of information studies and
telecommunications together comprise our project on technology
and society. The project advances free markets and civil
society in telecommunications.
Our
papers, testimony, forums, and conferences educate policymakers,
the media, and the public about how market principles apply
to communications issues.
Many
commentators working in this area seem poised to reinvent
the regulatory wheel. Cato offers a strong understanding
of basic principles of constitutional government, markets,
and the limits of regulation, principles that remain unchanged
in spite of changing technology.
Our principle areas of study include:
- Electronic commerce, with an emphasis throughout the
year 2000 on privacy policy issues, where Cato plays a
major role in opposing a top-down model of privacy regulation;
- The rule of law and regulatory reform, particularly
FCC reform and a necessary prelude to FCC reform, creating
a market in rights to the electromagnetic spectrum;
- The digital divide -- including information have-nots
and universal service -- stressing the role markets play
in spreading technology even to the poor;
- Competition in technology and networks, including antitrust
issues as well as "open access" regulation;
- Electronic civil liberties, such as questions of free
speech in broadcasting and over the Internet.
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