Computer & Communications Industry Association

Computer and Communications Industry Association

Formation	1972
Purpose	Lobbying

The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) is an international non-profit advocacy organization based in Washington, DC which represents the computer, Internet, information technology, and telecommunications industries. According to their site, CCIA "promotes open markets, open systems, open networks, and full, fair, and open competition." Established in 1972, CCIA was active in anti-trust cases involving IBM, AT&T and Microsoft, and lobbied for net neutrality, copyright and patent reform and against internet censorship and policies, mergers or other situations that would reduce competition. CCIA released a study it commissioned by an MIT professor, which analyzed the cost of patent trolls to the economy., a study on the economic benefits of Fair Use and has testified before the Senate on limiting government surveillance and on internet censorship as a trade issue.

Membership

CCIA members include a range of internet services companies to software to telecom companies such as Dish Network, eBay, Facebook, Google, Intuit, Uber, Microsoft, nVidia, Sprint Nextel, and Amazon.

Issues

Internet freedom

The group has lobbied on Internet freedom issues like the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT IP Act, testified on Internet censorship as a human rights and trade issue and also lobbied on privacy issues including government surveillance by the US National Security Agency CCIA has also lobbied for patent litigation reform, including the Innovation Act, and provides the website Patent Progress, which is dedicated to patent issues.

Intellectual property

Patents: CCIA represents companies that hold patents and also rely on licensing patents from others to produce interoperable tech products. CCIA supports balanced intellectual property policies that support both patent holders and next generation innovation. It maintains a blog, Patent Progress, that covers issues like patent reform. CCIA filed an amicus brief in the Apple Samsung design patent case, which the court ultimately used in its ruling. The Supreme Court ended up agreeing a company should not gain another company's entire profits on a product over a design patent infringement issue. CCIA has been fighting for comprehensive patent reform for two decades and has issued statements supporting venue reform, as a fifth of the patent cases are ushered over to the Eastern District of Texas, which promotes itself as having procedures and juries that favor patent owners.

Copyright: CCIA supports balancing copyright policy so that it incentivizes creators and also allows people to access information online. It has commissioned studies in the US and Europe that industries that rely on fair use and other copyright exceptions make up one-sixth of the GDP. The tech trade association has warned about court rulings such as Europe's right to be forgotten, which some, including CCIA Vice President James Waterworth in Brussels, creates a frightening ability for any EU citizen to "disappear" web search results. In a New York Times article, which also ran on CNBC, Waterworth said, "This ruling opens the door to large-scale private censorship in Europe. While the ruling likely means to offer protections, our concern is it could also be misused by politicians or others with something to hide." CCIA has offered comments to USTR on how copyright has been used as a trade issue and

Privacy

CCIA has also been an outspoken critic of government surveillance without checks and balances. CCIA CEO Ed Black testified against FISA renewal before the Senate in 2007, saying better checks and balances were needed, and he testified again in 2013 after the Snowden revelations about the scope of NSA surveillance. In a Washington Diplomat article looking at the impact of the leaks one year later, Black expressed optimism that people will be better able to protect themselves in the future and he has called on Congress to pass legislation to allow companies to disclose the size and scope of government requests and for the government to end mass bulk data collection.

CCIA Europe

CCIA's four person Brussels office, established in 2010, is advocating for its members on issues before European regulators including copyright reform, the audiovisual services directive, the e-Privacy directive, the telecommunications proposal, data transfers, data localization, trade issues and other policies that support the digital economy. As Europe moves to a Digital Single Market, it has an opportunity to usher in policies that would boost its innovation economy and also the increasing number of traditional industries that rely on the internet to collaborate with colleagues and reach customers.