This year, Engine focused on a number of critical policy issues impacting entrepreneurs and technology startups across the United States. Guided by the startup community’s concerns, we stood up for strong net neutrality rules, highlighted the importance of intermediary liability protections, called for a federal data privacy framework that works for both consumers and startups, and much more.

As the year draws to a close, we wanted to highlight some of the main policy issues that have affected the startup community this year, and what we’ve done to advance the goals of the entrepreneurial community.

This morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on “encryption and lawful access.” While the hearing largely focused on the ways large tech companies use encryption—Apple and Facebook testified—companies of all sizes, especially startups, rely on increased privacy and security protections to gain and keep user trust as well as to differentiate themselves from larger competitors.

TLDR: An appeals court is currently considering whether Internet platforms can be held liable when their users are accused of trademark infringement. Redbubble was accused of direct trademark infringement based on the accusation that its users were selling infringing Ohio State products on the platform. A trial court concluded that Redbubble should not be liable in this circumstance, and Engine filed a brief in support of Redbubble’s position on appeal. 

The Big Story: FCC proposes unlicensed spectrum boost. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai announced a proposal this week to reallocate spectrum in the 5.9 GHz band for unlicensed use, a move that would open up the airwaves for more Wi-Fi. The 5.9 GHz band is currently reserved for vehicle-to-vehicle communications but has largely been unused for its intended purpose. Chairman Pai’s proposal would reallocate the lower 45 MHz for unlicensed use while setting the upper 40 MHz aside for vehicle safety purposes. 

TLDR: The Supreme Court last week took up a copyright case and is hopefully poised to resolve issues about the copyrightability and permissible use of software interfaces next year. The case in question arose from a long-running dispute between Oracle and Google about one type of software interface—application programming interfaces, or APIs. Without the Supreme Court’s intervention, there is a risk that companies will copyright APIs or other interfaces, and then be able to prevent other companies from using them without paying for a license. 

The Big Story: House panel examines big tech's impact on small businesses. The House Small Business Committee held a hearing yesterday to examine big tech’s impact on small businesses, with lawmakers bringing in witnesses from large tech companies, small retailers, and nonprofit organizations to discuss the benefits and challenges of large online platforms. 

TLDR: Startups are keeping a close watch as the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. Access to talent is vital to the success of startups, and numerous studies have shown that immigrants make important contributions to the entrepreneurial community. Policies and decisions that suggest the U.S. is a bad place for immigrants—like a ruling against the DACA policy—would be bad for the startup community.    

The Big Story: Lawmakers scrutinize Chinese social media app TikTok. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism held a hearing on Tuesday to examine how technology companies might be exposing user data to “criminals, China, and other bad actors,” with lawmakers spending much of the time lambasting popular social media app TikTok for not sending a representative to testify before the panel.

Mozilla asked leaders of a powerful House panel to investigate the data collection practices of Internet service providers after several large ISPs were found to be lobbying against the non-profit’s plan to encrypt users’ browsing data. 

The Big Story: The importance of small business exports. A new study released this week highlighted how American small businesses have successfully leveraged the explosive growth of the digital economy over the past several decades to make significant contributions to the U.S. economy.  

Although entrepreneurs are responsible for nearly all net new job creation, policymakers have frequently prioritized big business over new business.  That’s why entrepreneurship champions across the country have joined together to form the Start Us Up coalition to urge policymakers to reduce barriers to entrepreneurship. 

The Big Story: House passes troubling copyright bill. The House this week voted in favor of the Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement Act (CASE Act), legislation that would create an extra-judicial Copyright Claims Board within the U.S. Copyright Office to adjudicate “small-claim” copyright infringement claims.  

As conversations swirl around the use of non-compete agreements in the labor market, it is important that lawmakers consider the effects of these agreements on startup formation and talent acquisition. Instead of protecting legitimate business interests, non-compete agreements are often used to block competition, prohibiting talented Americans from starting their own innovative ventures and from hiring the talent they need to succeed and to be competitive.

The Big Story: Keeping U.S. cryptocurrency globally competitive. Ahead of next week's hearing featuring Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussing cryptocurrency, another Facebook official warned this week that China will be at an advantage if U.S. policymakers fail to come up with a system to regulate cryptocurrencies like Facebook's Libra. 

As a House panel this morning prepares to discuss the merits of critical intermediary liability protections for online platforms, it’s important for lawmakers to understand the positive impact that these rules have had on Internet platforms of all sizes, particularly startups. 

The Big Story: U.S. acts on Chinese firms. The U.S. Commerce Department added eight Chinese artificial intelligence companies to its trade blacklist this week, even as reports emerged that the Trump administration plans to issue licenses to allow some U.S. companies to continue supplying nonsensitive products to Chinese telecoms firm Huawei. The decisions both came as the U.S. and China resumed discussions this week to resolve their ongoing trade dispute.

The FTC is reviewing potential updates to a children’s privacy law to determine whether changes need to be made to the law to account for “evolving business practices.” While protecting children’s privacy online is a shared goal of the FTC and the tech community, some potential changes to the rules under the law could impact platforms across the Internet, especially startups.

The Big Story: Federal court issues ruling on net neutrality.The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit this week upheld parts of the Federal Communications Commission’s 2017 repeal of the popular net neutrality rules, although the court struck down a portion of the agency’s order that kept states from enacting their own net neutrality regulations.

Encryption is back in the news this week with a major piece in the New York Times blaming the spread of child exploitation material in part on encryption and an upcoming Justice Department event on encryption’s “impact on child exploitation cases.” But proposals to undermine strong encryption could undermine the way startups and tech companies ensure their users’ privacy and security.