In testimony to the Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet, Daniel Castro reviews the two important principles for cloud computing: creating “cloud-neutral” policies and addressing anti-competitive foreign practices that challenge the dominance of cloud computing service providers in the United States. He emphasized that strong U.S. leadership in cloud computing is necessary to combat unfair trade practices that other nations are using to block foreign competitors in the rapidly growing cloud computing industry.

ITIF president Rob Atkinson will speak at the annual SRII conference in San Jose, California. He will be leading a panel titled, "Government Policies/Regulations for IT Innovation and Global Economic Growth."

Other confirmed presenters at the conference include Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google and Theresa Anna Maldonado, Division Director, National Science Foundation. Register now.

Senior Analyst Daniel Castro provided expert commentary in an op-ed for Zocalo Public Square on how Google is changing public knowledge. Castro wrote search engines have become a crucial intermediary between people and the information they seek. But in addition to asking whether search engines should reflect the wisdom of the crowd and whether they should reflect the preferences of the user, we can also ask whether search engines should help people access illegal content or whether search engines should help governments engage in censorship.

On May 26, 2012, the EU-mandated “Cookie Law” will go into effect in the UK. This law requires that websites give users the ability to opt-out of all tracking. The UK and Ireland took this a step further and require users to opt-in. Website owners in the UK that fail to comply with the law will face fines up to £500,000.