[ NNSquad ] Re: Susan Crawford

[Richard Bennett <richard@bennett.com>]

I think we can all more or less agree that it's unfortunate to have a 
legal academic with no particular grounding in technology or business 
advising the president on tech and innovation policy. At least 
Genachowski has background in serious technology issues from his former 
life at the FCC and some understanding of the business side of tech from 
his work at IAC and as a venture capitalist. I could fill a book with 
things Crawford has said about the Internet that simply are not true. 
This is a really, really bad appointment.

RB

Brett Glass wrote:
>   [ To be clear about Brett's comments below, I did *not* say in the
>     quoted message that I was disappointed in Susan Crawford's     
>     appointment, rather that I was disappointed in her approach to TLD 
>     issues (while on the ICANN board).
>
>     Brett expresses other concerns about Susan's appointment -- 
>     concerns that (as you might guess) I do *not* share.
>
>         -- Lauren Weinstein
>            NNSquad Moderator ]
>
> - - -
>
> At 01:07 PM 3/24/2009, Lauren Weinstein wrote:
>
> >   "Internet law expert Susan Crawford has joined President Barack 
> > Obama's
> >    lineup of tech policy experts at the White House, according to 
> > several
> >    sources."
> >
> > Since ICANN is mentioned below, I must note that I found Susan's vocal
> > support of the proposed dot-ex-ex-ex TLD, and what many observers
> > viewed as her mischaracterization of alleged support for that TLD, to
> > be extremely disappointing.
>
> Her appointment is disappointing to me as well, though for different 
> reasons. The Obama administration has said, repeatedly, that it would 
> not hire lobbyists to work in areas in which they have lobbied. Yet, 
> Susan Crawford is on the advisory board 
> (http://www.publicknowledge.org/about/who/advisors) of a Google-funded 
> lobbying group called Public Knowledge, which is lobbying on various 
> tech policy issues and advocates onerous regulation of the Internet.
>
> Ms. Crawford has also expressed publicly her conviction that the 
> Internet should be regulated "like a utility" 
> (http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=220488&SecID=2) 
> and/or nationalized (http://scrawford.net/blog/structural-will/784/) 
> and has falsely stated to Congress that there is no competition in the 
> realm of Internet service. (Ironically, I, a competitive Internet 
> service provider, was sitting in the hearing room at the time.) None 
> of these things, in my opinion, bode well.
>
> --Brett Glass

--
Richard Bennett