This paper documents the evolution of government-granted privileges, or "cronyism," in the information and communications technology marketplace and in the media-producing sectors. It also shows that cronyism is slowly creeping into new high-technology sectors. This influence could dull...

The rise of the sharing economy has changed how many Americans commute, shop, vacation, and borrow. It has also disrupted long-established industries, from taxis to hotels, and has confounded policymakers. In particular, regulators are trying to determine how to apply many of the traditional...

Use of the wide variety of available technological controls, household media rules and other private sector efforts are a much better alternative to government regulation to address concerns about children's exposure to violence on television. Lawmakers should be wary of policies that could be...

The unstated assumption underlying the drive for a la carte regulation and family-friendly tiering mandates is that government can somehow magically create a right to receive video programming on any terms you wish. Certainly if you don't like what your current video service provider has to...

Congress and the FCC should free over the air broadcast radio from regulations that are not imposed on its competitors to allow it to compete with satellite radio and other media. Furthermore, the playing field is best leveled by deregulating down, rather than regulating up with new restrictions...

Recent federal, state and local proposals to regulate electronic game content are driven by myths that should not serve as the basis for government intervention. Six myths commonly used in support of government regulation of game content are addressed as follows: Contrary to current...

The FCC in recent years has increased its fines for broadcast indecency and has cited rising complaints as a reason. However, upwards of 99% of the broadcast indecency complaints received by the FCC have come from campaigns generated by a single advocacy group. Moreover these totals have been...

Debates continue to rage about how to shield kids from the potential negative effects of various types of media or communications technologies. Is government intervention and regulation really needed to quell concerns, or do parents have access to constructive tools to control what their child...

New technologies that allow families to easily tailor their media consumption undermine the pervasiveness rationale for government regulation of content. Both the variety of family programming options now available and new technologies, such as digital video recorders (DVRs) and video on demand...

The Federal Communications Commission should refrain from regulating technical standards in the cable industry. Among two competing proposals currently before the FCC concerning ways the FCC can facilitate development of two-way cable services, such as pay-per-view and video-on-demand, one...