Information Technology and U.S. Competitiveness
to provide parents with the ability to control their children's access to it. For example, there are several free software programs that parents and schools can install on their computers to prevent children from accessing objectionable material. These programs are far more effective than government regulations in reducing children's access to offensive material.
Congress also is considering a new law that would extend copyright and trademark protection to the Internet. For example, users of the Internet are providing the texts of copyrighted material in books or sound recordings of music to other users for free. The entertainment industry views this as an infringement of copyright laws. In fact, instead of holding the users themselves responsible for these violations, which would be the normal practice under copyright law, it wants to hold the providers of Internet services responsible. Thus, under the proposed law, local Internet providers, the computer network, and the telephone companies could be taken to court by an aggrieved copyright owner over a violation by an individual user.
Such policies will not make America more competitive. Rather, they will destroy both the rapid growth of the Internet and the American companies benefiting from this growth. Instead of passing new copyright laws for the Internet that hold users and service suppliers alike responsible for infringements, the U.S. should rely on existing copyright laws that hold the violators responsible. America's lead in the information and computer industries is not only good for the U.S. economy. It also is needed to keep America militarily strong. To enable American companies to develop new and better information and computer products, policymakers should abolish outdated and costly regulations on information and computer services. If current government intrusion on the Internet persists, it will slow the innovative process that has made America the world leader it is today.
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