Earlier today we released our comprehensive legislative recommendations for 2007. This Congress will face a lot of big decisions — on issues ranging from privacy to free speech — that could have lasting impact on the Internet as we know it. In light of the growing attempts among lawmakers in recent years to exert greater control over Internet, that’s a somewhat unnerving concept. But by the same token, this Congress will have a great many opportunities to reestablish an approach to high-tech policy that respects both civil liberties and innovation.

Our agenda, which we’ll be distributing to key lawmakers in Congress in the coming days, includes a short treatise on what lawmakers need to know about Internet policymaking, as well as issue-by-issue legislative recommendations.

The underlying message is this: the Internet did not evolve to become one of the most robust, democratic communications tools the world has ever known by accident. An important element of the Internet’s success can be attributed to policymakers who realized early on that the Internet was different than anything they had yet encountered, and as such it required a different regulatory approach. That message remains true today, and that’s what we’ll be telling lawmakers as the 110th Congress gathers steam.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 22nd, 2007 at 6:11 pm and is filed under CDT, Consumer Privacy, Free Expression, Internet Neutrality, Open Government, Security & Freedom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.