RTP's Fourth Branch Podcast

With emerging debates around facial recognition technology, the issue of regulating biometric access technologies has become more prominent. San Francisco, notably, has banned government use of facial recognition, and states like Illinois and Texas have also begun more aggressive regulations on biometrics. The implications of these technologies for civil rights and the rules to limit their use are explored and explained in this podcast.

Featuring:
- Ashley Baker, Director of Public Policy, Committee for Justice
- Jennifer Huddleston, Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University

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The oral argument for County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund was heard before the Supreme Court on November 6, 2019. The issue at hand is: "Whether the Clean Water Act requires a permit when pollutants originate from a point source but are conveyed to navigable waters by a nonpoint source, such as groundwater." This teleforum previews the major issues of the case.
Featuring:

Brianne Gorod, Chief Counsel, Constitutional Accountability Center
Glenn E. Roper, Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
[Moderator] Prof. Donald Kochan, Parker S. Kennedy Professor in Law, Chapman University

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The broadcasting market used to be straightforward. It functioned on a linear model consisting of content companies, distribution channels and audiences. The advent of the internet disrupted that model, placing new competitive pressures on traditional players and forcing them to rethink their strategy.

Vertical integration – the common ownership or control of both programming and distribution undertakings – has been hailed as a useful strategy for legacy broadcasters to survive in the new digital environment. Regulators and the courts, to a large extent, have endorsed this rationale. Earlier this year, AT&T fended off an antitrust challenge to its merger with Time Warner, successfully claiming that the merger was necessary to take on platforms such as Netflix, Facebook and Google.

Has vertical integration succeeded in making the broadcasting sector more innovative and competitive? Are additional regulatory safeguards necessary to prevent and sanction anti-competitive conduct? What can the United States learn from Canada, a broadcasting market with higher levels of vertical integration and cross-media ownership?

Featuring:
- Brad Danks, Chief Executive Officer, OUTtve Lee,
- Will Rinehart, Director of Technology and Innovation Policy, American Action Forum
- [Moderator] Paul Beaudry, Director of Broadband Policy and Regulatory Affairs, TELUS Communications Inc.

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

In this episode, Adam Thierer and Brent Skorup speak with Senator Mike Lee on the current state of drone regulation. The senator speaks to his proposal for a cooperative, federal solution to regulatory holdup in drone technology innovation.

Additional Resources:

Senator Lee's proposed Drone Integration and Zoning Act: https://www.lee.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2019/10/sen-lee-introduces-drone-integration-and-zoning-act

Brent Skorup, "To Kickstart Drone Deliveries, Give Cities and States Regulatory Flexibility": https://www.mercatus.org/bridge/commentary/kickstart-drone-deliveries-give-cities-and-states-regulatory-flexibility

Featuring:
- Mike Lee, United States Senator, Utah
- Brent Skorup, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University
- [Moderator] Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow, Mercatus Center, George Mason University

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

Last term in Gundy v. U.S., without Justice Kavanaugh the Court was split between a restoration of a substantial limitation on the administrative state and the status quo. In this case, as Justice Gorsuch described it, Congress gave “the nation’s chief prosecutor… the power to write his own criminal code governing the lives of a half-million citizens.” This case has enormous implications for how much power federal bureaucrats can be given by Congress. The panelists will discuss this case and a potential future without such extensive power for federal agencies.
Featuring:

Devin Watkins, Attorney, Competitive Enterprise Institute
Moderator: Prof. Christopher J. Walker, Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

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With the conclusion of the Federal Trade Commission’s 21st Century Hearings, the agency is finalizing several reports concerning the state of competition in the US, vertical mergers, the consumer welfare standard, and privacy. This panel summarizes the issues the FTC explored in the hearings and discuss their views of potential FTC output.

Featuring:
- Maureen Ohlhausen, Partner, Baker Botts LLP and former FTC Acting Chairman
- Duane Pozza, Partner, Wiley Rein LLP
- Moderator: Svetlana Gans, Vice President and Associate General Counsel, NCTA — The Internet & Television Association

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

In this episode, Paul Rubin, the world’s leading expert on cooperative capitalism, discusses his new book, The Capitalism Paradox: How Cooperation Enables Free Market Competition. Rubin explains how we should think about markets, economics, and business and makes a case that this book is an indispensable tool for understanding and communicating the vast benefits the free market bestows upon societies and individuals. Moderator Susan Dudley's review of the book may be read here.

Featuring:
- Prof. Paul H. Rubin, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Economics Emeritus, Emory University
- Moderator: Prof. Susan Dudley, Director, GW Regulatory Studies Center & Distinguished Professor of Practice, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy & Public Administration, George Washington University

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

What happens when a state agency uses without authorization copyrighted videos and pictures of Blackbeard’s famous pirate ship, the Queen Ann’s Revenge? Is this an act of state-sanctioned piracy for which the copyright owner can sue for the violation of his rights, or is the state immune from such a lawsuit under its inherent sovereign immunity? This is the question that the Supreme Court will answer in Allen v. Cooper, with oral arguments scheduled for November 5, 2019.
In this case, North Carolina argues that it is immune from any copyright infringement lawsuits given its state sovereign immunity under the 11th Amendment. Rick Allen maintains in his lawsuit that North Carolina is liable for its unauthorized use of his video footage and photographs of the Queen Ann’s Revenge given that Congress validly abrogated the state’s sovereign immunity in the Copyright Remedy Clarification Act (CRCA). In Allen v. Cooper, the Supreme Court will determine whether the CRCA was a valid statutory abrogation of North Carolina’s state sovereign immunity. In this teleforum, experts on varying sides of the issue will discuss the case and its impact on state officials and the use of copyrighted materials by state agencies and other institutions.
Featuring:

Michael Bynum, Editor, Epic Sports
Terry Hart, VP, Legal Policy and Copyright Counsel, Copyright Alliance
Matthew R. McGuire, Counsel, Hunton Andrews Kurth

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.

With the advent of mobile devices, ubiquitous home laptop, tablet and iPad computers, content streaming and more, the need for wireless service is forever on the rise in the United States. Industry experts note that capacity limits are being stretched. With the arrival of the "Internet of Things," linking the internet with everything from nanny cams to home/office climate systems to autonomous vehicles, is there a clear and coherent path forward on the assignment or repurposing of spectrum? Perhaps as importantly, who has the authority and expertise to decide?

Featuring:
- Dean Brenner, Senior Vice President, Spectrum Strategy & Technology Policy at Qualcomm
- Hilary Cain, Director (Group Manager), Technology and Innovation Policy, Toyota North America
- Danielle Piñeres, Vice President & Associate General Counsel, NCTA- The Internet & Television Association
- [Moderator] Prof. Christopher J. Walker, Professor of Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

Visit our website – www.RegProject.org – to learn more, view all of our content, and connect with us on social media.