Intellectual Property Law

Tech Advisor: McCain?s Kids Use the Internet

By Cynthia Brumfield

Republican Presidential hopeful John McCain has been mocked as an Internet illiterate because he does not use it, a characterization that is unfair according to Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy advisor and technology point person for the McCain campaign. Speaking during an interview on C-SPAN?s ?The Communicators? series (scheduled to air Saturday and Monday ? more info here), Holtz-Eakin said ?As a political matter, we?ve seen a pretty aggressive attempt by the opposition to portray John as out of touch somehow with the technology community when in fact he has a superb record on technology issues in the Congress.?

Although McCain himself may not be an active Internet user, ?he is in touch with what Americans are doing on the Internet, he has a family, he has kids who use the Internet, he has a daughter who has a blog,? Holtz-Eakin said. ?I think it?s an unfair characterization? to say that McCain is out of touch with an activity so central to most voters? lives. ?He?s more in touch with America than any other human being I know.?

Holtz-Eakin also offered insight into how a McCain administration would approach a variety of telecom and tech policy matters. He reiterated the general themes that emerged in McCain?s broader economic plan such as tax credits for R&D and immigration reform to enable more international scientists, engineers and technologists to work in the U.S.

Regarding net neutrality, McCain believes that ?aggressive and prescriptive legislation on net neutrality is not needed at this time? and he would ?encourage private firms to develop a best practice model and industry self-regulation? in lieu of codifying net neutrality via legislation.

As to whether the current FCC Chairman, Republican Kevin Martin, would keep his job in a McCain administration, Holtz-Eakin was less than reassuring. There are ?lots of personnel decisions to make but that?s all premature at this point,? he said.

But like Kevin Martin, McCain is not a big fan of the cable industry. The current Chairman of the Senate Commerce thinks cable has too much power and he has particularly embraced the notion of forcing cable companies to sell individual channels on an a la carte basis. Unlike Martin, who favors such cable tier unbundling for primarily ?family values? reasons (to weed out certain kinds of objectionable channels or programs), McCain supports the notion for primarily economic reasons, namely as a way to lower monthly cable bills.

?His view is that cable companies have had far too much authority and monopoly power in many marketplaces,? Holtz-Eakin said. ?There was no ability to ameliorate that other than by directly demanding that they be responsive to some consumers? desires to get specific channels and not be forced to get others. He pursued that and he would continue as a general matter to look at these issues in that way. You don?t want markets that show unusual concentrations of power on any side of the equation.?

Unlike his Democratic rival, McCain sees no need to foster advancements in government?s use of technology through the creation of a new cabinet-level national CTO. ?The senator wants to have an effective government and I don?t think making a new president appointment and adding a layer to the federal government is a solution to that,? Holtz-Eakin said.

Full post as published by IP Democracy on August 29, 2008 (boomark / email).