Ars Technica's article: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080815-mccain-plans-to-crack-down-on-global-epidemic-of-piracy.html


John McCain's Technology Platform

Technology

John McCain has a broad and cohesive vision for the future of American innovation. His policies will provide broad pools of capital, low taxes and incentives for research in America, a commitment to a skilled and educated workforce, and a dedication to opening markets around the globe. He�s committed to streamlining burdensome regulations and effectively protecting American intellectual property in the United States and around the globe.

Transformative information and communications technologies permeate every aspect of our daily lives. In the last decade, there has been an explosion in the ways Americans communicate with family, friends, and business partners; shop and connect with global markets; educate themselves; become more engaged politically; and consume and even create entertainment. America has led the world into this technology revolution because we have allowed innovation to take root, grow, and prosper. Nurturing technology and innovation is essential for solving the critical problems facing our country: developing alternative fuels, addressing climate change, stopping the spiraling expense of health care, and better educating our children.

John McCain is uniquely qualified to lead our nation during this technological revolution. He is the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. The Committee plays a major role in the development of technology policy, specifically any legislation affecting communications services, the Internet, cable television and other technologies. Under John McCain�s guiding hand, Congress developed a wireless spectrum policy that spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and Wi-Fi technology that enables Americans to surf the web while sitting at a coffee shop, airport lounge, or public park.

To maintain American leadership in the world, John McCain believes we must nurture the conditions under which entrepreneurs can prosper and the American people can reap the rewards.

As President, John McCain would:

* Encourage investment in innovation
* Develop a skilled work force
* Champion open and fair trade
* Reform intellectual property protection
* Keep the Internet and entrepreneurs free of unnecessary regulation
* Ensure a fully connected citizenry

John McCain Will Encourage Investment in Innovation

John McCain Supports Risk Capital For Investment In American Innovation. Innovation requires risk capital to turn bold ideas into reality. A ready supply of capital willing to invest in innovative ventures has been a hallmark of America. To maintain our innovative edge, our next President must promote conditions favorable to investment. John McCain knows the stakes � and he knows what it will take for America to remain competitive. Federal tax and fiscal policy must create and protect the incentives to innovate.

John McCain Will Not Tax Innovation By Keeping Capital Gains Taxes Low. Cutting edge ventures fail more than they succeed and it takes daring to invest in unproven ideas. High capital gains taxes dampen incentives to create something new. Many will undoubtedly lose money trying to build clean energy technologies. It discourages the effort, to the detriment of society, if the government confiscates too large a share of the profits for those who succeed.

John McCain Will Reform And Make Permanent The R&D Tax Credit. Basic research and development is the lifeblood of an innovative economy and is essential to keeping America competitive. A top priority needs to be putting private capital to work in research and development. As President, John McCain will establish a permanent Research and Development (R&D) tax credit equal to 10 percent of wages spent on R&D. Offering a tax credit for R&D wages will encourage the creation of innovation-driven jobs in the United States.

John McCain Will Lower the Corporate Tax Rate To 25 Percent To Retain Investment In U.S. Technologies. Currently, the United States has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, and it is the American worker who suffers the consequences. When corporations put their money and investment into countries with lower tax rates, those companies invest less in American facilities, new hires, worker training, and employee compensation. A 2006 study by the Congressional Budget Office found that 70 percent of the corporate tax burden falls on the American workers. John McCain will help our nation compete more aggressively against the likes of China, South Korea, Singapore, and Ireland by bringing taxes to a competitive level that encourages entrepreneurs to reinvest their earnings in American workers.

John McCain Will Allow First-Year Expensing Of New Equipment And Technology. To provide an immediate boost to capital expenditures and reward investments in cutting edge technologies, John McCain would allow companies to expense the costs of new equipment or technology in the first year. The additional investment stimulated by such expensing will drive economic growth.

John McCain Will Ensure Technology And Innovation Is Not Hampered By Taxes On Internet Users. Ten years ago, Senator McCain led the bipartisan fight for legislation to keep the Internet free of taxation. From its inception, John McCain has seen the Internet as an engine of growth for the next generation of American innovation. Burdening that engine of growth with heavy taxes only harms American competitiveness in this vital sector.

John McCain Opposes Higher Taxes On Wireless Services. John McCain has opposed new state and local discriminatory taxes and fees on wireless services, which are relied upon by over 250 million Americans. Taxes account for over 20 percent of many mobile phone users� bills. Such excessive taxation dampens innovation and hits vulnerable Americans.

John McCain Will Ensure the American Workforce is Skilled and Ready to Lead the Technological Revolution

America Must Educate Its Workforce For The Innovation Age. America�s ability to compete in the global market is dependent on the availability of a skilled workforce. Less than 20 percent of our undergraduate students obtained degrees in math or science, and the number of computer science majors has fallen by half over the last eight years. John McCain will fully fund the America Competes Act to help address these trends in education and training. Our nation�s education system should also help re-train displaced workers. Invigorating our community college system is a good place to start. John McCain has long supported grants for educational instruction in digital and wireless technologies, targeted to minorities and low-income students who may not otherwise be exposed to these fields.

Fill Critical Shortages Of Skilled Workers To Remain Competitive. American workers should always be the first choice for highly skilled technology jobs. However, there is a critical shortage of these workers and American competitiveness is suffering as a result. John McCain will expand the number of H-1B visas to allow our companies to keep top-notch talent � often trained in our graduate schools � in the United States. The Department of Labor should be allowed to set visa levels appropriate for market conditions. Hiring skilled foreign workers to fill critical shortages benefits not only innovative companies, but also our economy. For every foreign worker hired, corporations generally hire five to ten additional American workers.

John McCain Believes in a Global Marketplace and Will Champion Fair and Open World Trade

John McCain Has Been A Long And Ardent Supporter Of Fair And Open World Trade. Trade greatly benefits America and the American worker. The best protection for American workers is to ensure that they have access to the world�s customers, 95 percent of whom live outside the United States. This access is particularly important for workers in the information technology sector where the United States has so much to offer the rest of the world. Lower tariffs on American products benefit American companies and create American jobs. Moreover, the Internet allows a global marketplace to emerge as the Internet knows no boundaries. As President, John McCain will promote fair trade agreements to give America�s high tech workers the opportunity to compete and continue to win in the global marketplace.

Competition Has Been A Great Strength For America � Offering Opportunity, Low Prices, And Increased Choice For Our Citizens. Markets work best when there is robust competition. Competition means that any new devices invented cost less because there are more choices. This ensures more Americans can afford to be part of the digital economy.

John McCain Will Protect The Creative Industries From Piracy. The entertainment industry is both a vital sector of the domestic economy and among the largest U.S. exporters. While the Internet has provided tremendous opportunity for the creators of copyrighted works, including music and movies, to distribute their works around the world at low cost, it has also given rise to a global epidemic of piracy. John McCain supports efforts to crack down on piracy, both on the Internet and off.

John McCain Will Protect Inventors Intellectual Property

The patent system has been with us since the founding of our nation. Protecting intellectual property creates the incentives for invention and investment in commercial innovations. Yet too much protection can stifle the proliferation of important ideas and impair legitimate commerce in new products to the detriment of our entire economy.

John McCain Will Push For Greater Resources For The Patent Office. The increased workload at the United States Patent and Trademark Office threatens to undermine the quality of our patent examinations. New resources to hire and train quality examiners are needed to ensure timely, predictable and effective patent review.

John McCain Will Pursue Protection Of Intellectual Property Around The Globe. Intellectual property protection is increasingly an issue for U.S. innovators operating in the global economy. John McCain will seek international agreements and enforcement efforts that ensure fair rewards to intellectual property.

Provide Alternative Approaches To Resolving Patent Challenges. For many important technologies, the only effective way to challenge a patent in the United States is through litigation, but litigation on patents is much too expensive. The lack of an affordable, reliable means to ensure that the Government only grants valid patents has led to overly broad, frivolous lawsuits designed to force innovative companies into big settlements.

John McCain Has Fought to Keep the Internet Free From Government Regulation

The role of government in the Innovation Age should be focused on creating opportunities for all Americans and maintaining the vibrancy of the Internet economy. Given the enormous benefits we have seen from a lightly regulated Internet and software market, our government should refrain from imposing burdensome regulation. John McCain understands that unnecessary government intrusion can harm the innovative genius of the Internet. Government should have to prove regulation is needed, rather than have entrepreneurs prove it is not.

John McCain Will Preserve Consumer Freedoms. John McCain will focus on policies that leave consumers free to access the content they choose; free to use the applications and services they choose; free to attach devices they choose, if they do not harm the network; and free to chose among broadband service providers.

When Regulation Is Warranted, John McCain Acts. John McCain does not believe in prescriptive regulation like �net-neutrality,� but rather he believes that an open marketplace with a variety of consumer choices is the best deterrent against unfair practices. John McCain has always believed the government�s role must be rooted in protecting consumers. He championed laws that penalized fraudulent marketing practices, protected kids from harmful Internet content, secured consumer privacy, and sought to minimize spam. When businesses struggled to assess the legal role of electronic signatures, John McCain led legislative efforts to ensure that these Innovation Age signatures were legally sufficient so that e-commerce could thrive. His record reflects the careful balance between protecting the essential elements of the Internet and securing the Internet as a safe tool of commerce, education and entertainment for our citizens. Offering simple common sense solutions to real problems is at the core of the McCain�s innovation agenda.

John McCain Will Ensure America is a Connected Nation

America cannot afford to lag in providing its citizens access to 21st Century infrastructure. Our children cannot count on a good education without high-speed Internet access. Without access, our citizens risk being left out of the societal and cultural changes that are sweeping the planet on a wave of innovation. Solving the problems of health care, immigration, climate change, and energy dependence all require connecting our citizens to a world-class network.

John McCain Will Pursue High-Speed Internet Access For All Americans. John McCain has long believed that all Americans, no matter if rich or poor, rural or urban, old or young, should have access to high-speed Internet services and receive the economic opportunities derived from technology. Access to high-speed Internet services facilitates interstate commerce, drives innovation, promotes educational achievements, and literally has the potential to change lives. As President, John McCain would continue to encourage private investment to facilitate the build-out of infrastructure to provide high-speed Internet connectivity all over America. However, where private industry does not answer the call because of market failures or other obstacles, John McCain believes that people acting through their local governments should be able to invest in their own future by building out infrastructure to provide high-speed Internet services. For this reason, Senator McCain introduced the �Community Broadband Bill,� which would allow local governments to offer such services, particularly when private industry fails to do so.

John McCain has fought special interests in Washington to force the Federal government to auction inefficiently-used wireless spectrum to companies that will instead use the spectrum to provide high-speed Internet service options to millions of Americans, especially in rural areas. As President, John McCain would continue to encourage research and development in technologies that could bring affordable alternatives to Americans, especially in rural areas.

John McCain would seek to accurately identify un-served or under-served areas where the market is not working and provide companies willing to build the infrastructure to serve these areas with high speed internet services incentives to do so. He also supports private/public partnerships to devise creative solutions and help rural area and towns and cities in their efforts to build-out broadband infrastructure through government-backed loans or low-interest bonds.

John McCain will establish a �People Connect Program� that rewards companies that offer high-speed Internet access services to low income customers by allowing these companies offset their tax liability for the cost of this service.

Ubiquitous connectivity can allow employees to telecommute, or better yet, open up job possibilities to millions of Americans who wish to work from their home. As President, John McCain would pursue an agenda that includes encouragement of telecommuting in the federal government and private companies.

John McCain Would Place A Priority On Science And Technology Experience. As President, John McCain will be committed to bringing talented men and women of science into the federal government. He will strive to ensure that Administration appointees across the government have adequate experience and understanding of science, technology and innovation in order to better serve the American people.

John McCain Would Ensure That The Federal Government Led By Example. Government can advance Americans� access to high speed Internet services by using it to better serve the people. Government services should be available online and government can better serve the American people by operating more efficiently through the use of technology, including videoconferencing and collaborative networks. For over a decade, John McCain has supported placing more government information online for the benefit of all of the American people. Since 2001, he has called for an Office of Electronic Government to set a strategic vision for implementation of electronic government

Government must also use these important tools to protect our nation. John McCain has led the fight for the creation of a nationwide public safety network that would support our local, state and federal first responders. As President, John McCain will ensure the network is being deployed by the end of his first term.

John McCain Would Support The Federal Government As An Innovator. John McCain as president would push for a renewed emphasis on innovation through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) where industry and government enter into public/private projects, sharing in the cost, benefiting from solving real problems, accelerating the application of technology in the government. This way the government is a leader of the technology revolution and not simply a beneficiary.

John McCain Would Make Sure that All Citizens Can Participate In The Technology Revolution. For his 26 years in Congress, John McCain has consistently stood up for those Americans who might lag behind this tide of innovation. For example, when Americans with disabilities found their paths to innovative technologies sometimes blocked, John McCain led the charge for closed captioning, hearing aid compatibility, and video description. He will bring these priorities to the Presidency.
Click here to learn more about John McCain's policies on ensuring the personal security and privacy of Americans in the digital age.

He isn't even smart enough about the
internet to know not to lie when it can
be so easily checked.

dumbass

good point


The introduction to the article said "Net Neutrality is something he 'does not believe in'".

And yesterday I read neither does MicroSoft.
What a crock.
(that's as in, crock of ----)

reported by cnet on August 14:

"Microsoft and Comcast hired Law Media Group in early May for what a source with knowledge of their anti-neutrality position said . . ."

Just what internet freedom needs from Microsoft and Comcast; way to go, guys! Thanks!!

What about Obama? I have scanned so many sites and have come up quite empty handed when it comes to intellectual property.

While Obama is much more internet savvy, he's being very tight lipped about that which may concern a few folks here.

So far, this is what I've found...

Obama and TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION FOR A NEW GENERATION

~~~~Protect American Intellectual Property Abroad: The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that in 2005, more than nine of every 10 DVDs sold in China were illegal copies. The U.S. Trade Representative said 80 percent of all counterfeit products seized at U.S. borders still come from China. Barack Obama will work to ensure intellectual property is protected in foreign markets, and promote greater cooperation on international standards that allow our technologies to compete everywhere.

Protect Intellectual Property at Home: Intellectual property is to the digital age what physical goods were to the industrial age. Barack Obama believes we need to update and reform our copyright and patent systems to promote civic discourse, innovation and investment while ensuring that intellectual property owners are fairly treated.~~~~~

He seems to know what needs to happen (don't we all)...he's just failed to tell us HOW it's going to happen.

Hmmm.....

This is the tech platform of a self-confessed computer illiterate. He knows not of what he speaks.

That is all.

I don't think we should be so quick to judge as to a belief that even though one may be perceived to be computer illiterate, (even self confessing), one wouldn't have a legion of computer experts support fronting them, in either camp.

obama is a master of saying tons and yet nothing at all i don't trust him i don't trust mccain not sure where barr stands on this but i doubt hell will

oh and i should mention im not a clinton supporter either.

" obama is a master of saying tons and yet nothing at all "

Name one that isn't.
It is the very definition of politics.
To single out obama on that basis is just
a little off.

As I said, at least he's saavy enough
not to lie when it's so easy to verify.

Clinton was every bit as stupid in this
area as McCain.

This simple fact ... the easy location of
information on the internet .. is the
largest reason for net neutrality.

Most politicos know that, and the RIAA
that pays them is the convenient excuse
( one of them, anyway ) to clamp down
on the net.

What you may be afraid Obama MIGHT
do , I can guarantee McCain WILL do.
Politics as they have been can not
survive under the microscope that is the
net.

McCain is , to me , another symbol of
politics as usual.

ah an obama supporter

id lay money on that obama is just as bad as mccain if he wasn't he would of of said something anything. the difference between every other politician and obama is they are able to at least make the critics believe they have said something with obama even some of his supporters don't know where he stands and the only reason they support him is he isn't a republican.

anyone figure out where barr stands yet even though he is on the ballot and doesn't stand a chance it would be nice to know where he stands im not much of a research person

i should also say im registered as a democrat however until i find a candidate i actually like i continue to vote for the guaranteed looser

i should also say
i have voted for republicans and democrats fully wanting them to win

sorry for the double posting i have a tendency to think of things i should say after i post.

" id lay money on that obama is just as bad as mccain if he wasn't he would of of said something anything. "

We'll find out when Obama wins in
November. And he will .. I'll lay money
on THAT.

Let's get one thing clear, before the '
Obamabot' , cult of personality crap
starts to get flung around ...
I don't expect miracles, I don't expect
ponies and rainbows or miracles.
I don't even expect he'll be able to
do everything he is promising ..
( those who need him to look bad who
have seats will do everything to make
him look as bad as possible ..Think i'm
paranoid ? I just watched a major
deployment of troops from my area,
bush is doing ho best to make sure the
mes is impossible to clean up so R folks
can point and go .. Gotcha ). I expect
that even though he fails at some things
he WILL try and WILL be HONEST and
ACCOUNTABLE for what he does/ doesn't
do.

Nearly everyone here in THIS online
community keeps up with things.
We read , research ... We CARE.
That seems to come with the territory
with the artistic .. the gifted. So please,
stay away from the trademarked talking
points, all of us know better, and a
REAL discussion will occur .. the kind
Obama seems to try to bring about.

Blah .. I have the afterthpught disease now.

BTW I have NEVER voted D or R in any
election since I was old enough to vote,
( and I have voted in EVERY election ),

I am 46, so thats a few of them.

" nice to know where he stands im not much of a research person "

This is exactly the kind of voter McCain
wants.

Apologies in advance Med, that's not really
meant to be personal attack, even though
it sounds bad.

That's just one of the things I mean by
politics as usual in this country.
We are supposed to be kept ignorant
and content with our American Idol and
other distractions.

Because of the internet, research really
is every kind of easy. Thats what McCain
and others like him fear and wish to ..
NEED to close off.

Take the time med, i'll bet you find what
you need to know in under 10 minutes.

Lowering Corporate Tax - stifling innovation and the aspirations of the average worker? or protecting the interests of the corporations and their bribe-happy board members?

i loath reality tv its one of many thing making our country stupid and fall behind the rest of the world.

and just because i don't want to to do research doesn't mean i don't do it i visit many sights with many views i prefer to let other people do the research for me as long as i am looking at the research of both sides and those on the outside i don't really need to do it myself however when there is a large gap of information missing like in the case of barr it means i may have to do it myself.

at least there is a handful of people that don't vote along party lines.

i live in watertown ny right next to fort drum its about 5 minutes away.
mccain scares me obama scares the living crap out of me mccain will put the county in the poor house more than it already is he will also keep troupes longer than need be hell sign anything the riaa get in front of him. obama will remove troops immediately from Iraq causing a void for Iran or Taliban to fill and run the country he will also bring about things like national health care looks good on the surface but will nearly bankrupt the county or at least severely hurt it he also wants to tax the rich and businesses and give tax breaks to the the middle class and poor looks good on the outside but if you think about it what business do you know of that doesn't pass all of its costs on to its customers if you know of one id like to know. a better idea would be the get rid of the incom tax system and go to the tax system where taxes are only collected through the things you buy that would mean every one pays the same tax illegals pimps prostitutes the mob people who work "under the table"
or "off the books" sure prices would go up but at the same time youll also recieve your entire paycheck.

both energy plans will continue to make us reliant on foreign oil and energy McCain wants to drill Obamma wants clean energy and solar neither plan would work only way to fix our energy is to do all forms of energy and to start now drill wherever we can put solar and wind wherever possible put up several nuclear plants put up any and all sources of energy we can think of and give the people who want nothing but wind and solar the middle finger even if we covered every inch of county in solar and wind we wouldnt even have 25% of what we use and oil if we dont drill it someone else will china is already buying up the oil land off floridas coast right out side of territorial waters and they will be using slant drilling to tap into our oil from international waters and they wont have the same enviromental standards as we do and if green peace shows up they will probably just shoot them on sight and let the sharks take care of them. we need coal to oil we need oil shale to oil we need everything not just one thing alone will solve our problem

obama has taken money from time warner and microsoft so hell be in the pockets of the riaa i didn't look at all of his contributions so there is probably more.

ok thats all im writing in this topic because i seem to have gone off course of the sites agenda.

I live in Arizona. I have voted for McCain in the past as a state senator. But he's not the same guy.

“McCain frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries’ names wrong, forgets things he’s said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused.” (NY Times)

-------

I don't think we should be so quick to judge as to a belief that even though one may be perceived to be computer illiterate, (even self confessing), one wouldn't have a legion of computer experts support fronting them, in either camp.

Regardless of where it came from, McCain's Tech Platform says net neutrality is a bad idea. It also says we should ramp up the chase for invisible pirates and save the intellectual property owners (aka the record labels).

A vote for McCain is a vote for the RIAA.

"politics as usual in this country..."

"A vote for McCain is a vote for the RIAA"

"Because of the internet, research really
is every kind of easy. Thats what McCain
and others like him fear and wish to ..
NEED to close off."

These quotes signify what the real problem is. In general, we have seen politics as usual from both parties. And while I agree that a vote for McCain is a vote for the RIAA, so is a vote for Obama. Both these politician's parties have received so much money from the RIAA lobbyists, that they both reek.

So why isn't anyone here discussing OTHER options? Why don't we as Americans do our research and vote for a different color. As long as it is not Red or Blue? In fact, I would like to suggest that a vote for any other party besides the Democrats or Republicans is a white vote. White to symbolize the blending of all other parties colors (I know what color the Green party would use, but what about the others, even if they use colors). Or maybe we call it black. Who cares, just as long as it is not Red or Blue.

The solution is simple America. Vote out the money. Yet, America is again blinded by the sneaky, subtle, vicious, dilusion of politics. And voting for the same politicians that have put us in this mess in the first place.

Yep.

And I see it says "your vote + John McCain = a promising future"
at the bottom of this webpage.
He wouldn't be spending a portion of his allotment of funds for ads such as this if there weren't an ample supply of folks willing to be misled multiple times (as in most years divisible by the number 4).
Politics reek.
(And so do people with tendencies to be influenced by political propaganda.)

. . . or by bribery from the structure of lobbying.

"John McCain is uniquely qualified to lead our nation during this technological revolution."

As I was reading that quote for the first time, I sputtered my coffee all over the keyboard. What a mess, but it was worth the deep belly laugh I got out of reading it!
We do need some good comic relief around here from time to time, and what's interesting is it can come when least expected — from an article or from a post.
I love this website.

Ron Paul.

Yeah, I almost wish Ron Paul could have had the funding that the little general (Ross Perot) got in 1992 . . . with his campaign serving to water down the Republican candidate's support so as to give the Democrat a distinct advantage.
Not the case this time around.
And the way this race is beginning to shape up, barring some new negative development against McCain, I'm about of the persuasion that the best if not only way Obama can assure himself of a victory is to have Hillary as his running mate. But that's not the indication, so perhaps we will have Bush III to put up with?
Neither candidate is the best thing for our nation. And it so often seems the majority of voters hold their nose and vote for "the lesser of two evils", when what they ought to do is what INeedAlover wrote: Abandon the two main parties and go with somebody else.

"When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?"
--Kingston Trio (from "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?")

"The answer, my friend,
Is blowing in the wind;
The answer is blowing
In the Wind." -- Bob Dylan

Obama supposedly has connections with the likes of John Perry Barlow & Lawrence Lessig, (possibly going to put one of them in as that "Tech & Internet Czar" is the scuttlebutt)

...but because this is politics (which relies on the entrenched major media outlets) he doesn't play the fact up very much.

I hope the scuttlebutt is true. I hope Obama is our stealth candidate. (His recent vote for Telecom immunity might have been a diversion, but it frustrated the hell out of me none the less.)

" (His recent vote for Telecom immunity might have been a diversion, but it frustrated the hell out of me none the less.) "

You have to give a little to get a little.

You know there is so much bullshit from both parties these days I really feel that this country's best interest is put on the back burner for good! All this bickering and gotcha is making me sick, my family comes from a strong democratic background (the ONCE noble party )I'm now pretty much being forced to pick mccain cause I dont know enough about obama, and it's clear the media is routing for him and protecting him not to mention the shady stuff with ayer's, rev wright, etc. so because of my choice (which is my choice) I have been critizised, demonized, called stupid, a moron .... all because I might vote for McCain and Palin, i'm still not sure who i'm voting for but i really think there should be only one party! i'm tired of liberals and conservatives putting their party before their country! united we stand and divided we fall