Trump Administration Should Prioritize Cybersecurity, IP Rights Enforcement, AEI Fellow Says

President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration “will have a remarkable opportunity to re-think the policies of several prior administrations” on communications, IP and tech issues given the Trump presidential campaign’s lack of a clear agenda on most tech sector issues, said Tom Sydnor, visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute's Center for Internet, Communications and Technology, in a blog post Wednesday. An “aggressive approach” to U.S. cybersecurity “will be essential,” Sydnor said. “Ordinary US citizens who take at least reasonable measures to protect their proprietary and privacy rights should be able to enforce them in practice at least within the US -- with or without the help of their state and federal governments.” The Trump administration’s commitment to end “crony capitalism” should extend to IP rights and other areas of information and communications sector-related policy, Sydnor said. “Focus on ensuring that private property rights -- including IP rights -- remain enforceable and enforced, even on the internet, and consider repealing laws or regulations that attempt to impose one-sided controls on two-sided relationships between businesses that should be expected to settle their differences in the marketplace,” he said. “These two principles, consistently applied, would do much to improve technology law and policy and reduce regulatory arbitrage.”