The Progress & Freedom Foundation ("PFF") was a U.S. market

Market

A market is one of many varieties of systems, institutions, procedures, social relations and infrastructures whereby parties engage in exchange. While parties may exchange goods and services by barter, most markets rely on sellers offering their goods or services in exchange for money from buyers...

-oriented think tank

Think tank

A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...

 based in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 that studies the digital revolution

Digital Revolution

The Digital Revolution is the change from analog mechanical and electronic technology to digital technology that has taken place since c. 1980 and continues to the present day. Implicitly, the term also refers to the sweeping changes brought about by digital computing and communication technology...

 and its implications for public policy

Public policy

Public policy as government action is generally the principled guide to action taken by the administrative or executive branches of the state with regard to a class of issues in a manner consistent with law and institutional customs. In general, the foundation is the pertinent national and...

. Its mission was to educate policymakers, opinion leaders and the public about issues associated with technological change

Technological change

Technological change is a term that is used to describe the overall process of invention, innovation and diffusion of technology or processes. The term is synonymous with technological development, technological achievement, and technological progress...

, based on a philosophy of limited government, free markets and individual sovereignty

Self-ownership

Self-ownership is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to be the exclusive controller of his own body and life. According to G...

.

PFF was funded in part by the digital media and communication industry.

On September 30, 2010, PFF President Adam Thierer blogged that the organization would cease all operations immediately.

Policy Areas

The Progress & Freedom Foundation focused its work on four major policy areas:

• Communications
• Intellectual Property
  Intellectual property
  Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
  
  
• Media Policy
• Internet Policy & E-Commerce

PFF's past policy stances include:

• Advocating an evidence-based communications policy framework that relies to the maximum extent possible on competitive forces to achieve next generation IP-based infrastructure deployment and service innovation
• Encouraging innovation by protection of rich digital content through the traditional legal notions of copyright and patent while urging private solutions to reduce digital piracy without government mandates.
• Explaining the need for lower taxes on telecommunications services, a tax moratorium for Internet commerce and privatization of government-run cable TV and telephone companies.
• Maximizing media freedom both in a structural (business) sense and a social (speech-related) sense, thus removing the shackles that limit the market flexibility of media operators, while ensuring freedom of speech and expression throughout society.
• Advancing a market-oriented approach to Internet policy issues that minimize government control and regulation while maximizing the vital role of free markets, free speech and property rights, allowing the online sector to innovate, invest and grow.

In particular, PFF has been known for strong support for software patent

Software patent

Software patent does not have a universally accepted definition. One definition suggested by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure is that a software patent is a "patent on any performance of a computer realised by means of a computer program".In 2005, the European Patent Office...

s and digital rights management

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

 systems, and steady skepticism of IP Commons and "Free Culture

Free Culture movement

The free culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify creative works in the form of free content by using the Internet and other forms of media....

".

Center for Digital Media Freedom

The Center for Digital Media Freedom was a part of the Progress & Freedom Foundation. The center's goal was to "protect America's sacred First Amendment heritage and promote enlightened public policy regarding all forms of communications," by maximizing both the social (freedom of speech) and business (freedom from regulation) freedoms of the digital economy.

External links

• Progress and Freedom Foundation Official homepage
• PFF Blog Daily blog of the Foundation