The current debate over privacy presents some of the most complex policy-making challenges we have seen in some time. While data on consumers have long been used for marketing purposes, the Internet has substantially increased the flow of personal information. This has produced great benefits, but it also has raised concerns on the part of individuals about what information is being collected, how it is being used and who has access to it. These concerns, in turn, have led to calls for new government regulation. This study focuses on the market for personal information used for advertising and marketing purposes, which is the market affected by most of the regulatory and legislative proposals now under consideration. Unfortunately, there has been little careful analysis of these proposals and their likely consequences. This book attempts to fill this gap by addressing the following basic questions: Are there failures' in the market for personal information? If market failures exist, how do they adversely affect consumers? Can such failures be remedied by government regulation? Would the benefits of government regulation exceed the costs? A/LISTA The authors find that the commercial market for information appears to be working well and is responding to consumers' privacy concerns. They conclude that regulation imposed on a medium like the Internet that is changing so rapidly would have unpredictable and costly consequences. This study is a product of The Progress & Freedom Foundation's project on Regulating Personal Information: Balancing Benefits and Costs. The Progress & Freedom Foundation studies the impact of the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It conductsresearch in fields such as electronic commerce, telecommunications and the impact of the Internet on government, society and economic growth. It also studies issues such as the need to reform government regulation, especially in technology-intensive fields such as medical innovation, energy and environmental regulation.

Do the antitrust laws have a place in the digital economy or are they obsolete? That is the question raised by the government's legal action against Microsoft, and it is the question this volume is designed to answer. America's antitrust laws were born out of the Industrial Revolution. Opponents of the antitrust laws argue that whatever merit the antitrust laws may have had in the past they have no place in a digital economy. Rapid innovation makes the accumulation of market power practically impossible. Markets change too quickly for antitrust actions to keep up. And antitrust remedies are inevitably regulatory and hence threaten to `regulate business'. A different view - and, generally, the view presented in this volume - is that antitrust law can and does have an important and constructive role to play in the digital economy. The software business is new, it is complex, and it is rapidly moving. Analysis of market definition, contestibility and potential competition, the role of innovation, network externalities, cost structures and marketing channels present challenges for academics, policymakers and judges alike. Evaluating consumer harm is problematic. Distinguishing between illegal conduct and brutal - but legitimate - competition is often difficult. Is antitrust analysis up to the challenge? This volume suggests that antitrust analysis `still works'. In stark contrast to the political rhetoric that has surrounded much of the debate over the Microsoft case, the articles presented here suggest neither that Microsoft is inherently bad, nor that it deserves a de facto exemption from the antitrust laws. Instead, they offer insights - for policymakers, courts, practitioners, professors and students of antitrust policy everywhere - on how antitrust analysis can be applied to the business of making and marketing computer software.

The subject of this book - whether or not to extend traditional telecommunications regulation to high-speed, or broadband, access to the Internet - is perhaps the most important issue facing the Federal Communications Commission. The issue is contentious, with academics and influential economic interests on both sides. This volume offers updated papers originally presented at a June 2003 conference held by the Progress and Freedom Foundation. The authors are top researchers in telecommunications.

Do the antitrust laws have a place in the digital economy or are they obsolete? That is the question raised by the government's legal action against Microsoft, and it is the question this volume is designed to answer. America's antitrust laws were born out of the Industrial Revolution. Opponents of the antitrust laws argue that whatever merit the antitrust laws may have had in the past they have no place in a digital economy. Rapid innovation makes the accumulation of market power practically impossible. Markets change too quickly for antitrust actions to keep up. And antitrust remedies are inevitably regulatory and hence threaten to `regulate business'. A different view - and, generally, the view presented in this volume - is that antitrust law can and does have an important and constructive role to play in the digital economy. The software business is new, it is complex, and it is rapidly moving. Analysis of market definition, contestibility and potential competition, the role of innovation, network externalities, cost structures and marketing channels present challenges for academics, policymakers and judges alike. Evaluating consumer harm is problematic. Distinguishing between illegal conduct and brutal - but legitimate - competition is often difficult. Is antitrust analysis up to the challenge? This volume suggests that antitrust analysis `still works'. In stark contrast to the political rhetoric that has surrounded much of the debate over the Microsoft case, the articles presented here suggest neither that Microsoft is inherently bad, nor that it deserves a de facto exemption from the antitrust laws. Instead, they offer insights - for policymakers, courts, practitioners, professors and students of antitrust policy everywhere - on how antitrust analysis can be applied to the business of making and marketing computer software.

The current debate over privacy presents some of the most complex policy-making challenges we have seen in some time. While data on consumers have long been used for marketing purposes, the Internet has substantially increased the flow of personal information. This has produced great benefits, but it also has raised concerns on the part of individuals about what information is being collected, how it is being used and who has access to it. These concerns, in turn, have led to calls for new government regulation. This study focuses on the market for personal information used for advertising and marketing purposes, which is the market affected by most of the regulatory and legislative proposals now under consideration. Unfortunately, there has been little careful analysis of these proposals and their likely consequences. This book attempts to fill this gap by addressing the following basic questions: * Are there 'failures' in the market for personal information? * If market failures exist, how do they adversely affect consumers? * Can such failures be remedied by government regulation? * Would the benefits of government regulation exceed the costs?GBP/LISTGBP The authors find that the commercial market for information appears to be working well and is responding to consumers' privacy concerns. They conclude that regulation imposed on a medium like the Internet that is changing so rapidly would have unpredictable and costly consequences. This study is a product of The Progress & Freedom Foundation's project on Regulating Personal Information: Balancing Benefits and Costs. The Progress & Freedom Foundation studies the impact of the digital revolution and its implications for public policy. It conducts research in fields such as electronic commerce, telecommunications and the impact of the Internet on government, society and economic growth. It also studies issues such as the need to reform government regulation, especially in technology-intensive fields such as medical innovation, energy and environmental regulation.