[opendtv] DejaVu
- From: "Craig Birkmaier" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "brewmastercraig" for DMARC)
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 14 Apr 2019 08:12:19 -0400
This all sounds Soooooooooo familiar!
Instead of facing the challenges of our hyper-connected age, the FCC is
stumbling, according to documents obtained by the Project On Government
Oversight (POGO) and through extensive interviews with current and former
agency employees. The agency is hampered by a lack of leadership on
cybersecurity issues and a dearth of in-house technical expertise that all
too often leaves it relying on security advice from the very companies it is
supposed to oversee.
Captured
CSRIC is a prime example of this so-called “agency capture”—the group was set
up to help supplement FCC expertise and craft meaningful rules for emerging
technologies. But instead, the FCC’s reliance on security advice from
industry representatives creates an inherent conflict of interest. The result
is weakened regulation and enforcement that ultimately puts all Americans at
risk, according to former agency staff.
We experienced the same fundamental issues during the U.S. Advanced Television
(ACATS) process. The Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Services was run
by the TV industry under the auspices of a former FCC Commissioner, who became
the chief lobbyist for the industry seeking an FCC mandate for their new TV
standard (ATSC).
This is the fundamental flaw of the agency tasked with regulating
communications in the U.S. - it has no real expertise in the issues it is
tasked with regulating. This is not idle conjecture; I experienced it
personally while working with ACATS, the ATSC and personnel at the FCC,
including several Commissioners and their staffs.
The agency must seek expert help in order to make decisions - and surprise,
surprise, the experts almost always are creatures of the regulated industries.
This is equally true at the State and local levels - the regulated monopolies
can afford to play the game, file all the paperwork, pay all the fees, and
payoff the regulators.
The problems are compounded by the fact that Congress typically must get
involved, as it did in this case, and with the DTV standard. Sadly it is MUCH
EASIER for the affected industries to lobby and pay off elected officials.
With respect to ATSC, Congress gave the FCC authority to deploy the standard,
and the FCC faithfully complied with the “expert advice” of the Advisory
Committee - to mandate the intellectual property embedded in the standard be
included in every new TV sold in the U.S.
The FCC cannot be fixed, as it is fundamentally broken by design. The very
nature of politically appointed Commissioners, the majority of which change
with the political affiliation of the Chief Executive, assures that the agency
is a political TOOL. The fact that an entire industry exists in Washington and
the States to lobby for and comply with the regulations promulgated by the FCC
and State agencies assure that the FCC is nothing but a creature of the
industries it regulates.
Time to shut the FCC down. As we have seen in the past two decades, competition
offers consumers far better solutions than regulating communications as
“natural monopolies.”
Regards
Craig
On Apr 12, 2019, at 6:54 PM, Monty Solomon <monty@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
https://arstechnica.com/features/2019/04/fully-compromised-comms-how-industry-influence-at-the-fcc-risks-our-digital-security/
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