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TechNet is a leading advocate for policies that foster the continued growth and vitality of the Internet. The Internet and e-commerce are expanding opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs to anticipate market demand and serve consumers – and providing consumers with the benefits of competition, efficiency and lower prices. And, they are have powered new levels of productivity and innovation that are driving economic growth across the economy.

While more and more companies across the economy are using the Internet to transform business and commerce, the on-line economy is still in its infancy. TechNet fully supports an environment of regulatory restraint and national consistency that will enable the continued growth of innovation, e-commerce and the Internet. TechNet has taken a position on the following specific issues:

• Net Neutrality. TechNet supports narrowly tailored legislation to preserve the policy of net neutrality that has been the foundation of Internet growth and innovation. As the world's dominant communications, commerce and information system, the Internet has been a tremendous engine for innovation and economic growth. This phenomenal growth and innovation have been built on the principle of open connectivity, whereby the end-to-end design and open architecture of the Internet have enabled consumer choice of Internet content and services free of interference or discrimination by the providers of underlying network connectivity. TechNet supports legislative provisions that will prevent network operators from engaging in discrimination based on the source or ownership of Internet content. Network operators must also be prevented from affirmatively blocking, degrading or impairing consumer access to the Internet content and applications of their choice. Additionally, legislation must ensure that the Federal Communications Commission will have full authority to address such anticompetitive behavior.
  
  
• Internet Taxation. TechNet opposes the enactment of taxes on Internet access or discriminatory regulations and taxes that treat Internet purchases differently from other types of sales. We strongly oppose taxes and regulations that would impose burdensome costs on consumers who shop on-line, threaten the viability of small businesses that rely on e-commerce and slow the growth of the high-speed broadband network.
  
  
• Internet Commerce. TechNet supports policies that safeguard and expand Internet commerce, including efforts to crack down on spam, protect consumers from deceptive practices involving “spyware,” improve the security of Internet transactions and combat identity theft. TechNet will oppose approaches that jeopardize the growth of the Internet, such as broad prohibitions on technology that risk prohibiting the development and deployment of potentially useful applications.
  
  
• Spyware. TechNet opposes the use of spyware to enable deceptive practices whereby software is surreptitiously downloaded onto a user’s computer and used to steal a person’s personally identifiable information, hijack a computer or commit fraud. But because much of today’s online experience requires the routine transmission of information from a consumer’s computer to a service, TechNet opposes legislation that would broadly -- and unnecessarily -- regulate all such communications or expose companies to litigation risk for deploying innocuous services. TechNet supports efforts to target deceptive practices without broadly regulating technology or exposing companies to undue or unfair litigation risk.
  
  
• Scanning. TechNet is also concerned about proposals that would broadly regulate the scanning of email. Many of today’s e-mail services – such as those that convert text e-mails to voice for use by the blind, filter spam or viruses, or convert URL addresses into clickable links – involve some form of scanning. Legislation that sweeps too broadly could preclude the development of other potentially useful services and applications in the future. TechNet remains committed to working with legislators to appropriately protect consumer privacy interests.
  
  
• On-line Privacy. On-line businesses recognize consumer concerns about privacy and in many cases are far ahead of off-line businesses in using new technologies that enable consumers to control both the collection and dissemination of their personal information. TechNet believes that the enactment of differing on-line privacy laws in many states will expose companies to a multiplicity of conflicting laws and requirements, harming the growth of on-line commerce. TechNet also believes that privacy legislation that regulates Internet-based transactions while exempting off-line transactions unjustifiably discriminates against the growth of on-line commerce. For example, personal information collected over the Internet should not be treated differently from that collected through off-line means, such as supermarket membership cards used to track customer purchases.
  
  
• E-Government. Technology can and should be a tool utilized by federal, state and local governments to effectively and efficiently deliver inherently governmental services. TechNet supports federal, state and local efforts to transform government agencies, enhance citizen participation and encourage broadband usage through e-government initiatives. TechNet is opposed to the use of state resources to duplicate or replicate services offered by commercial enterprises, particularly in those instances in which a robust competitive marketplace exists.