Kerry's real tech agenda
The Massachusetts senator barely mentioned technology in his convention speech, except to marvel at ever-shrinking microchips and implore everyone to visit JohnKerry.com. That's not much to work with.
So let's take a look at what Kerry was doing before he announced his bid for the White House--long before the usual phalanx of speech writers and marketing consultants began filtering his public statements into something that resembles the texture and flavor of Velveeta.
A careful review of Kerry's history in the Senate shows that his record on technology is mixed. The Massachusetts Democrat frequently sought to levy intrusive new restrictions on technology businesses that would harm the U.S. economy. He was no friend of privacy and sided with Hollywood over Silicon Valley in the copyright wars.
But his votes in favor of free trade won him a rating of
Kerry never was a steadfast foe of the tech industry, as were politicians like Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C. But Kerry did veer in that direction a few times.
Copyright: At one hearing I wrote about in 2002, members of the Senate Commerce committee were trying to figure out what to do with a Hollings bill that would have required copy protection controls to be embedded in all consumer electronic devices. Intel Executive Vice President Leslie Vadasz told the committee that Hollings' idea was a brain-dead approach that ignored Silicon Valley's concerns in favor of those raised by Hollywood lobbyists.
Kerry's advice? "We might need to legislate," he said, ignoring Vadasz's objections.
Internet regulation: Then there's Kerry's support for a second piece of
Tech firms and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sensibly
Kerry never was a steadfast foe of the tech industry, as were politicians like Sen. Fritz Hollings. But Kerry did veer in that direction a few times. |
Abortion & economy: On the other hand, Kerry did stand on principle in 1996 when he and other pro-choice senators announced they would seek to repeal sections of the
1996 Telecommunications Act that made it a crime to
Kerry can properly claim credit for being one of 11 senators to sponsor
the
Last fall, Kerry
Privacy: In the mid-1990s, when the U.S. eavesdrop establishment was trying to ban encryption products by arguing that drug smugglers, terrorists, child pornographers and other random miscreants could cloak their communications, Kerry leaped into the debate on the wrong side.
Kerry, who served on a key intelligence committee, became something of a go-to guy for the FBI. At a hearing before that committee in 1996, Kerry lobbed softball questions at FBI Director Louis Freeh about the Internet and advances in encryption technology. "Has all of this really left you, in the law enforcement community, kind of grappling to catch up, and frankly behind the curve?" Kerry asked.
Kerry didn't go so far as to say that strong encryption should be outlawed, which Freeh had wanted. But in 1997, the Massachusetts senator did vote for an
Fortunately, that proposal didn't go anywhere. Professional organizations like the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Association for Computing Machinery panned it, saying in a letter to the Senate that "national security and public safety will be weakened by the mandated introduction of constrained or recoverable-key encryption." The groups recommended a competing proposal, called the ProCode bill, which Kerry did not support.
Two years later, Kerry co-sponsored another encryption bill, called the Protect Act. The Protect Act also tried to push key escrow, which it called "recoverable" encryption products, by saying they could be freely exported.
Because it wasn't nearly as intrusive as its 1997 predecessor, it received lukewarm support from some Silicon Valley firms like RSA Data Security. (Then-Sen. John Ashcroft was actually more in favor of privacy than Kerry, saying at the time the Protect Act "is a good start" that "can go farther.")
Patriot Act: Kerry
In last week's convention speech, Kerry talked about restoring the rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, but it's hardly clear what he meant. His campaign says that "John Kerry stands by his vote for the Patriot Act. He even wants to strengthen some aspects of it relating to terrorism, such as improving intelligence information sharing."
At the same time, however, Kerry is a sponsor of a bill in the Senate that would repeal part of the Patriot Act by curbing current police practices relating to surveillance and search warrants.
Broadband: In 2001, Kerry introduced the
Is that good or bad? The answer depends on your perspective, but might the same tax credit have been better used to encourage the development of nanotechnology, or remote medicine, or Internet security products? The danger in this sort of industrial policy is that a Washington politician, even one who appears to be as intelligent as Kerry, may end up making the wrong call.
To be sure, technology policy won't be as important in the 2004 election as topics like the Iraq war, terrorism threats and the U.S. economy. But the information tech industry does account for 8.2 percent of the U.S. economy, and it's
biography
Declan McCullagh is CNET News.com's Washington, D.C., correspondent. He chronicles the busy intersection between technology and politics. Before that, he worked for several years as Washington bureau chief for Wired News. He has also worked as a reporter for The Netly News, Time magazine and HotWired.