Caio Pereira, JSD candidate, Yale Law School, Information Society Project Fellow, on "Universal Access Policies in Developing Countries"

Ivan Reidel, SJD candidate, Harvard Law School, Berkman Center's Digital Media Team, on "Competition and Deregulation in the Music Industry"

"Universal Access Policies in Developing Countries" - Caio Pereira, JSD candidate, Yale Law School Information Society Project Fellow

Abstract:

This is a draft of Chapter 3 of my JSD dissertation, which discusses the design and implementation of public policies aimed at promoting widespread access to information and communications technologies (ICTs) in developing countries i.e. the so-called universal access policies. The dissertation constructs an analytic framework to examine universal access policies and applies this framework to case studies in Latin America. My main case study is the Brazilian universal access policy.

Chapters 1 and 2 focused on the question of why should governments of developing countries promote the expansion of access to ICTs. I argued that policies towards widespread access to ICTs are usually grounded both on rationales of efficiency and equality (i.e., equality of citizenship and equality of wealth). Beyond making the case for the very existence of these
policies in a developing context, the rationales discussed also function as vectors for the design of governmental action.

In Chapter 3, I move on from the question of why universal access policies to two other questions: what should the goal of universal access policies in developing countries be? And how should governments go about implementing these policies in an era of increasing privatization and liberalization of telecommunications markets? The first issue regards the crucial definition of the general objective of these policies. The second issue relates to the definition of the roles of government in the implementation of policies towards the expansion of access to ICTs, given the context of profound national regulatory reforms that took place in the past two decades.

Part I of the Chapter focuses on the goal of universal access policies. First, it discusses the traditional conception of universal access, as defined in most developed countries. Then, it proposes a more realistic conception applicable both to the new context of technological evolution and to the particular environment of developing countries. Part II constructs
the first layer of the policy analytic framework, presenting a broad picture that attempts to articulate factual contexts, policy rationales and policy approaches, in order to identify adequate policy approaches to some ideal factual contexts. Part III refines this broad picture, providing a more detailed discussion of the two main roles of governments in the implementation of universal access policies in the context post-neoliberal reforms.

I will focus my presentation on Parts II and III, although comments on Part I are also welcome.

"Competition and Deregulation in the Music Industry" - Ivan Reidel, SJD candidate, Harvard Law School
Berkman Center's Digital Media Team

Abstract:

Less that a month ago, ASCAP, the largest performing rights organization in the world reached agreements with the two industry organizations grouping more than 12.000 commercial radio stations and 1200 television stations in the US. In this agreement ASCAP decided to depart from its traditional pricing policy of charging a percentage of the stations revenue in exchange for use of ASCAP's musical repertoire, and instead charge a compounded fee independent of their revenues.

In my presentation I will explore why this kind of agreements, against common intuition, are steps in the wrong direction, worsening market conditions for small players and consolidating wealth transfers from the poorer to the richer, generally decreasing social welfare.

Based on technology currently available, I will present alternative
licensing mechanisms with explicit redistributive goals, consistent with market efficiency and social welfare enhancement.