Former FCC chairman Powell dishes on over-regulation and Donald Trump (Q&A) - CNET

Let's talk about the FCC's set-top box proceeding. The FCC wants to allow third parties to offer boxes so people aren't forced to rent one from a cable operator. I've never understood why cable companies would want you renting boxes from them anyway.
Powell: They don't. It's because of the box that we have to send trucks out to your house so the guy with the blue booties can come in and install it. We know the real pain point for us is when you move and have to retu a box to a crummy retail store and have a bad experience. It's interesting that the FCC talks a lot about the revenue of the set-top boxes for the cable companies, but the commission didn't talk at all about the expense.

So why do I still have to rent a box from the cable company?
Powell: You could buy a Tivo right now. By the way, most of the models that have survived, like Tivo, include subscription. Tivo is way more expensive than leasing a set-top box from the cable company.

The truth is we want to be on all kinds of devices -- iPhones, iPads, tablets, Rokus, Apple TVs. Our disagreement with the FCC has nothing to do with getting on third-party devices.

But they want to create a market for competitive boxes. We want to create a market where everything is a box. And we're already doing it. Time Waer Cable and Charter have already built fully integrated cable apps. Comcast has already announced their fully integrated cable app. Those apps are going to be capable of running on Roku, Apple TV, iPad, it won't matter what the device is.

The cable industry is opposed to the FCC taking over privacy regulation for Inteet providers from the Federal Trade Commission. What are your objections to this approach?
Powell: There are a lot of nuances in privacy for Americans. Some people will give their privacy away if they see value in it. So protecting privacy is not an easy one-size fits all solution.

The FTC's process responds to harms that evolve with leaing. I think it's a superior approach to the one that the FCC is forced to employ, which is, 'I'm going to type out a rule and put it in a rule book and then enforce against that rule for the next decade, no matter what happens in the market place.'

When you have markets move as dramatically as the Inteet does with as much experimentation and risk-taking that's required, prophylactic rules in a rule book can be problematic because they don't breathe. You can put a rule in a book and it takes 20 years to get it off.

All we're asking is for the FCC to harmonize regulation with the FTC.

You come from a prominent Republican family. Your father, Colin Powell, served as secretary of state, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and National Security advisor. What do you think of Donald Trump?

I won't just make that comment about Mr. Trump. The political system is letting us all down. Somebody once told me that the way most people vote for president is they want the person who exhibits the qualities that they wish they fully were. You should want them to be better.

There was a time when people in the Republican party really wanted your dad to run for president. Some still do. Anybody in the Powell family thinking about politics?
Powell: At the moment that answer would clearly be no. I can't speak for my dad, either.

I don't know why he doesn't run for president, but it's a system that at the moment isn't encouraging people like him to run. I can name you lots of people I admire who should run for president. We should be worried as a country that a Colin Powell or Bob Gates or a lot of other people I admire don't want anything to do with this. If you have a system that elects the most powerful person in the world that people are being repelled by, something is wrong.