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Unplanned Obsolescence: Interpreting The Automatic Telephone Dialing System After The Smartphone Epoch, Walter Allison Oct 2020

Unplanned Obsolescence: Interpreting The Automatic Telephone Dialing System After The Smartphone Epoch, Walter Allison

Michigan Law Review

Technology regulations succeed or fail based upon their ability to regulate an idea. Constant innovation forces legislators to draft statutes aimed at prohibiting the idea of a device, rather than a specific device itself, because new devices with new capacities emerge every day. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is a federal statute that imposes liability based on the idea of an automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS). But the statute’s definition of the device is ambiguous. The FCC struggles to coherently apply the definition to new technologies, and courts interpret the definition inconsistently. Federal circuit courts have split over these …


Unfit For Prime Time: Why Cable Television Regulations Cannot Perform Trinko's 'Antitrust Function', Keith Klovers Dec 2011

Unfit For Prime Time: Why Cable Television Regulations Cannot Perform Trinko's 'Antitrust Function', Keith Klovers

Michigan Law Review

Until recently, regulation and antitrust law operated in tandem to safeguard competition in regulated industries. In three recent decisions-Trinko, Credit Suisse, and Linkline-the Supreme Court limited the operation of the antitrust laws when regulation "performs the antitrust function." This Note argues that cable programming regulations-which are in some respects factually similar to the telecommunications regulations at issue in Trinko and Linkline-do not perform the antitrust function because they cannot deter anticompetitive conduct. As a result, Trinko and its siblings should not foreclose antitrust claims for damages that arise out of certain cable programming disputes.


Choosing Between The Necessity And Public Interest Standards In Fcc Review Of Media Ownership Rules, Peter Dicola Oct 2007

Choosing Between The Necessity And Public Interest Standards In Fcc Review Of Media Ownership Rules, Peter Dicola

Michigan Law Review

Section 202(h) of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, as amended, directs the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") to review its media ownership rules every four years. But the statute contains an ambiguity regarding the standard of review that the FCC must apply during such proceedings. To retain a particular media ownership regulation, must the FCC merely show that the regulation advances one of the FCC's three public-interest goals for media: competition, diversity, and localism-applying a "public interest" standard? Or must the FCC meet the higher burden of demonstrating that the regulation is also indispensable for maintaining competition, diversity, or localism at …


Proactive Legislation And The First Amendment, Stuart Minor Benjamin Nov 2000

Proactive Legislation And The First Amendment, Stuart Minor Benjamin

Michigan Law Review

It is a commonplace that the world is changing rapidly, with whole sectors of the economy being transformed. New forms of communication, like the World Wide Web, e-mail, and satellite television, have risen from obscurity to ubiquity in less than a decade. The speed of these changes has led some to express concern about the ability of governments to respond. The fear is that governments cannot keep up with developments as they occur and thus get hopelessly behind. The solution, according to some, is for the government to act proactively - before a harm has arisen, so that the government …


The Common Law In Cyberspace, Tom W. Bell May 1999

The Common Law In Cyberspace, Tom W. Bell

Michigan Law Review

Wrong in interesting ways, counts for high praise among academics. Peter Huber's stirring new book, Law and Disorder in Cyberspace, certainly merits acclaim by that standard. The very subtitle of the book, Abolish the FCC and Let Common Law Rule the Telecosm, announces the daring arguments to follow. A book so bold could hardly fail to make some stimulating errors, the most provocative of which this review discusses. Thanks to his willingness to challenge musty doctrines of telecommunications law and policy, moreover, Huber gets a great deal right. Law and Disorder in Cyberspace argues at length that the Federal Communications …


The First Amendment Status Of Commercial Speech: Why The Fcc Regulations Implementing The Telephone Consumer Protection Act Of 1991 Are Unconstitutional, Deborah L. Hamilton Jun 1996

The First Amendment Status Of Commercial Speech: Why The Fcc Regulations Implementing The Telephone Consumer Protection Act Of 1991 Are Unconstitutional, Deborah L. Hamilton

Michigan Law Review

This Note considers the constitutionality of the FCC's regulations implementing the no-recorded-message provision of the 1991 TCPA and concludes that they violate the First Amendment because they impermissibly distinguish between commercial and noncommercial speech. Part I explains the structure of the FCC's recorded-message regulations and demonstrates that the regulations explicitly distinguish commercial recorded messages from other recorded messages. Part II examines First Amendment protection for commercial speech in light of three 1993 Supreme Court decisions that restructured commercial speech doctrine by holding that the government can single out commercial speech for regulation only in response to a distinct harm arising …


American Broadcasting And The First Amendment, René L. Todd May 1989

American Broadcasting And The First Amendment, René L. Todd

Michigan Law Review

A Review of American Broadcasting and the First Amendment by Lucas A. Powe, Jr.


Misregulating Television: Network Dominance And The Fcc, Robert R. Morse Jr. Apr 1986

Misregulating Television: Network Dominance And The Fcc, Robert R. Morse Jr.

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Misregulating Television: Network Dominance and the FCC by Stanley M. Besen, Thomas G. Krattenmaker, A. Richard Metzger, Jr. and John R. Woodbury


The Power Of The Fcc To Regulate Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership: The Need For Congressional Clarification, Michigan Law Review Aug 1977

The Power Of The Fcc To Regulate Newspaper-Broadcast Cross-Ownership: The Need For Congressional Clarification, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The controversy surrounding the FCC's Second Report and . Order, its appeal, and the subsequent decision in NCCB raises basic questions concerning the statutory authority of the FCC to promulgate rules concerning newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership. This Note suggests that the FCC, notwithstanding judicial affirmation in NCCB of the Commission's authority to adopt such rules, might well be exercising more authority than Congress intended it to possess under the Communications Act of 1934. This Note therefore concludes that, irrespective of the merits of the Second Report and Order, Congress should reexamine and clarify the scope of the FCC's power in this regard.


The Fcc Computer Inquiry: Interfaces Of Competitive And Regulated Markets, Michigan Law Review Nov 1972

The Fcc Computer Inquiry: Interfaces Of Competitive And Regulated Markets, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Since the advent of computer technology, data processing and communication services have become increasingly interdependent. In 1966, the Federal Communications Commission launched the Computer Inquiry to explore the broad range of regulatory and policy problems generated by this technological development.2


Administrative Law-Community Representatives Have Standing To Challenge Fcc License Renewal-Office Of Communication Of United Church Of Christ V. Fcc, Michigan Law Review Jan 1967

Administrative Law-Community Representatives Have Standing To Challenge Fcc License Renewal-Office Of Communication Of United Church Of Christ V. Fcc, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

When the owners of a Jackson, Mississippi television station applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a renewal of their broadcast license, representatives of the local Negro community filed a petition with the Commission, requesting it to deny the renewal. Petitioners contended that a renewal of the applicant's license would not be in the public interest since the station had consistently violated the Commission's "fairness doctrine" which requires broadcasters to encourage and implement a fair presentation of all sides of any controversial public issue discussed over their facilities. Specifically, petitioners alleged that, in its local programs dealing with racial …


Administrative Law--Procedure--Right Of Interention In Fcc Rate-Making Proceeding, Jon E. Denney Mar 1963

Administrative Law--Procedure--Right Of Interention In Fcc Rate-Making Proceeding, Jon E. Denney

Michigan Law Review

In response to a petition of the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Federal Communications Commission began an investigation of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company's tariff charges on its "telpak" service. The American Communications Association, a trade union representing Western Union workers in the New York City area, petitioned to intervene. The hearing examiner's decision to deny intervention was affirmed by the Commission. A motion for reconsideration was also denied by the FCC because the union failed to show how its intervention in the proceeding would assist the Commission in determining the issues, as required by the rule reserving to …


Regulation Of Business - Antitrust Laws - Effect Upon A Subsequent Antitrust Suit Of Fcc Approval Of An Exchange Of Television Stations, John F. Powell S.Ed. Apr 1959

Regulation Of Business - Antitrust Laws - Effect Upon A Subsequent Antitrust Suit Of Fcc Approval Of An Exchange Of Television Stations, John F. Powell S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

United States v. Radio Corporation of America-Creation of independent regulatory agencies presented the courts with the problem of allocating jurisdiction whenever the determination of proper judicial action was found to require the resolution of issues which an administrative agency was competent to resolve. To meet this problem the doctrine of "primary jurisdiction" was developed whereby administrative issues are to be decided by the agency prior to the court's determination of issues not within the realm of the agency. Application of the doctrine is based on the need for efficient and uniform agency regulation and the desirability of utilizing agency …


Administrative Law-Hearing On Questions Of Law As A Requirement For Due Process Jun 1950

Administrative Law-Hearing On Questions Of Law As A Requirement For Due Process

Michigan Law Review

The Federal Communications Commission granted a permit for a radio station to the Coastal Plains Broadcasting Company. WJR, not a party to that proceeding, filed a petition for reconsideration and hearing, alleging, inter alia, that the new station would cause objectionable interference with WJR. Coastal Plains entered an opposition, asserting that the petition, on its face, was legally insufficient to make WJR a party. WJR did not respond. The commission, without oral argument, denied the application, holding that there was no objectionable interference. The court of appeals treated this as equivalent to a holding as a matter of law, essentially …


Labor Law-Applicability Of The Lea Act To Activities Of The American Federation Of Musicians, W. J. Schrenk, Jr. Jun 1948

Labor Law-Applicability Of The Lea Act To Activities Of The American Federation Of Musicians, W. J. Schrenk, Jr.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, acting as president of a local union of the American Federation of Musicians, requested a new contract with a broadcasting station licensed by the Federal Communications Commission, including a provision that the licensee hire three extra musicians, raising to six the total number of musicians employed. When negotiations regarding this provision failed, defendant withdrew from the licensee's services the three musicians (members of the A.F. of M.) already employed by it. An action was, then brought to prosecute defendant under the amendment to the Federal Communications Act, popularly known as the Lea Act, which prohibits the use of threats …


Abstracts, Katherine Kempfer Oct 1943

Abstracts, Katherine Kempfer

Michigan Law Review

The abstracts consist merely of summaries of the facts and holdings of recent cases and are distinguished from the notes by the absence of discussion.


Parties To Administrative Proceedings, Paul Oberst Jan 1942

Parties To Administrative Proceedings, Paul Oberst

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of this article to examine the statutory provisions, and the regulations and practices of the federal agencies, dealing with the rights of third persons, along with the relevant judicial decisions. The rights of third persons to notice, to participation in the hearing, and to appeal will be considered in turn. In general, the ultimate purposes of an administrative hearing are to inform the agency, to serve as a check upon arbitrary action, and to enable the individuals who will be affected by the decision to confront their opponents and to present their case in its best …


Constitutional Law - Interstate Commerce - State Occupation Tax On Operation Of Radio Broadcasting Station Jun 1936

Constitutional Law - Interstate Commerce - State Occupation Tax On Operation Of Radio Broadcasting Station

Michigan Law Review

A domestic corporation, owning and operating two radio stations, both broadcasting well beyond the state's borders, sought to enjoin the enforcement of an annual occupation tax equal to one per cent of gross income from business within the state. It was admitted that while a state might impose a property tax on a business engaged only in interstate commerce or a tax solely to support regulation in the exercise of the state's police power, an unapportioned gross income tax on a business engaged in intrastate and interstate commerce would be an unconstitutional burden on interstate commerce, although a net income …


Uniform Corporation Laws Through Interstate Compacts And Federal Legislation, Robert S. Stevens Jun 1936

Uniform Corporation Laws Through Interstate Compacts And Federal Legislation, Robert S. Stevens

Michigan Law Review

It is the purpose of the present article to suggest that another means of accomplishing the end exists in the possibility of an interstate compact for uniform corporate legislation, coupled with supplementary federal legislation appropriate to make the interstate compact effective.