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Weighing Bush's mixed technology legacy

Tags:
Principles,
Legacy,
Association,
Intellectual Property

Declan McCullagh CNET News

Published: 20 Jan 2009 13:37 GMT

...apparent from the beginning, said Black, who is listed as giving money to Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, but no Republicans.

"There were only a handful of people who by and large were the administration's technology people," he said. "In some cases, while they were fine people, they lacked the clout to make a big difference."

Laissez-faire approach
On the other hand, the Bush administration's relatively laissez-faire approach when it came to internet regulation turned out to be good for business. Bush opposed internet taxes, though he spent little political capital on the topic. He expended more when supporting immigration reform, even when it put him at odds with conservative members of his own political party.

"Generally, the technology industry has flourished under the Bush administration," said Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, the organisation that stages the annual Consumer Electronics Show. "It's a legacy of those who came before as well that the US has managed to attract virtually every major company based around the internet. All of these companies have been in the United States because of US policy and creativity."

One early flashpoint came after a federal appeals court in Washington, DC, ruled that US district judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's attempt to break up Microsoft could not stand.

The appeals court's ruling overruled Jackson, tossed out his breakup order, and concluded that Microsoft had not illegally "tied" the browser or tried to monopolise the browser market to the detriment of Netscape Navigator. That left the new Bush administration with less antitrust ammunition, and it settled the case a few months later.

Generally, the technology industry has flourished under the Bush administration

Gary Shapiro, Consumer Electronics Association

However, Liberal critics of the administration blamed the settlement on a political philosophy hostile to expansive antitrust claims. They found even more to complain about, in a series of FCC-approved telecommunications mergers that took place during the Bush administration, including the merger between AT&T and BellSouth, Verizon and MCI, and SBC Communications and AT&T.

For its part, the White House characterises itself as having "pro-growth telecommunications policies". The free-market principles of the Bush administration were extended globally, and "the focus on free trade has been the most principled and lasting legacy" of the Bush administration, Shapiro said. Bush can claim as victories the Central American Free Trade Agreement and a trade deal with Peru. He managed to ink deals with Colombia and South Korea, but Congress did not ratify them.

Push for free trade
Although there was more emphasis on bilateral agreements than multilateral trade deals, Bush's push for free trade was significant for an industry that is thoroughly international, Shapiro said, and especially laudable given the growing anti-trade sentiment in the country, particularly in Democratic and union circles.

Stronger protection for intellectual property were put in place with the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act. Copyright law tends to be relatively bipartisan: there's no reason to believe that a Democratic administration would have been any different. President Clinton signed the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which was overwhelmingly approved by a bipartisan congressional majority, into law, and Obama has chosen the recording industry's favourite lawyer for a senior administration position.

"There's a gradual increasing respect in the developing world for IP, and I suspect that's a trend that will continue," Shapiro said.

Immigration policy in the Bush years, however, is largely seen as a disappointment from the tech perspective.

"National security concerns and a loss of focus on visas were disappointing for us," Shapiro said. "In terms of attracting the best people around the world, we know we're losing people to countries with less rigorous security processes."

While it was negotiating international agreements, the Bush administration could have done more to create...