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Full-Text Articles in Law
Symmetry And (Network) Neutrality, Tejas N. Narechania
Symmetry And (Network) Neutrality, Tejas N. Narechania
Michigan Law Review Online
In this short Essay, I take the opportunity to highlight one further potential asymmetry that may yet emerge from the Supreme Court’s application of Chevron’s many doctrines. Drawing on then-Judge Kavanaugh’s disdissental from the D.C. Circuit’s decision affirming network neutrality rules, I suggest that there is at least one vote on the Supreme Court—and perhaps more—for an asymmetric approach to the major questions doctrine. Moreover, I demonstrate how asymmetry in this context is deeply irrational. As applied to network neutrality, the asymmetry has at least one of two effects. One, it might simply favor one large industry over another, …
Net Neutrality: An Explainer, Kincaid C. Brown
Net Neutrality: An Explainer, Kincaid C. Brown
Law Librarian Scholarship
Net neutrality is the idea that internet services or broadband providers should treat all content streaming through their systems the same, and providers who use their discretion to create “fast lanes,” block particular content, or throttle (slow down) internet speeds are not in keeping with how the internet ought to work.
In All Fairness: Using Political Broadcast Access Doctrine To Tailor Public Campaign Fund Matching, Andrew V. Moshirnia, Aaron T. Dozeman
In All Fairness: Using Political Broadcast Access Doctrine To Tailor Public Campaign Fund Matching, Andrew V. Moshirnia, Aaron T. Dozeman
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Recent United States Supreme Court decisions have undermined the viability of campaign public financing systems, a vital tool for fighting political corruption. First, Citizens United v. FEC allowed privately financed candidates and independent groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on campaigning. Publicly financed candidates now risk being vastly outspent. Second, Arizona Free Enterprise Club’s Freedom PAC v. Bennett invalidated a proportional fund matching system whereby privately financed candidates’ or independent groups’ spending triggered funds to publicly funded candidates. These decisions effectuate a libertarian speech doctrine: all speakers, individual or corporate, must be absolutely unburdened. To comply with this approach, …
No More Shortcuts: Protect Cell Site Location Data With A Warrant Requirement, Lauren E. Babst
No More Shortcuts: Protect Cell Site Location Data With A Warrant Requirement, Lauren E. Babst
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
In modern society, the cell phone has become a virtual extension of most Americans, managing all kinds of personal and business matters. Modern cell tower technology allows cell service providers to accumulate a wealth of individuals’ location information while they use their cell phones, and such data is available for law enforcement to obtain without a warrant. This is problematic under the Fourth Amendment, which protects reasonable expectations of privacy. Under the Katz two-prong test, (1) individuals have an actual, subjective expectation of privacy in their cell site location data, and (2) society is prepared to acknowledge that expectation as …
Sexting Prosecutions: Minors As A Protected Class From Child Pornography Charges, Sarah Thompson
Sexting Prosecutions: Minors As A Protected Class From Child Pornography Charges, Sarah Thompson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform Caveat
"Firt love is only a little foolishness and a lot of curiosity." -- George Bernard Shaw Teenagers will explore their sexuality; this is no new phenomenon. However, the ways that teens are exploring their curiosity is changing with technology. This trend has serious repercussions for teens, society, and the law. ‘Sexting’—defined as the act of sending sexually explicit photographs or messages via cell phone—is one recently-developed means of sexual exploration. The practice overlaps with the production, distribution, and possession of child pornography that is banned by both state and federal law. Due to the overlap, minors have been prosecuted under …
Satmed: Legal Aspects Of The Physical Layer Of Satellite Telemedicine, Stephen Rooke
Satmed: Legal Aspects Of The Physical Layer Of Satellite Telemedicine, Stephen Rooke
Michigan Journal of International Law
In 2003, Paul Hunt, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights' Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, presented a report on the global availability of health care. Special Rapporteur Hunt argued that states are obligated to implement a right to health. Included in this right is the obligation "to ensure that no international agreement or policy adversely impacts upon the right to health, and that .. . international organizations take due account of the right to health, as well as the obligation of international assistance and cooperation, in all policy-making matters." One area Hunt left unexplored in his report was …
Unfit For Prime Time: Why Cable Television Regulations Cannot Perform Trinko's 'Antitrust Function', Keith Klovers
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.
Technology Convergence And Federalism: Who Should Decide The Future Of Telecommunications Regulation?, Daniel A. Lyons
Technology Convergence And Federalism: Who Should Decide The Future Of Telecommunications Regulation?, Daniel A. Lyons
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article critically examines the division of regulatory jurisdiction over telecommunications issues between the federal government and the states. Currently, the line between federal and state jurisdiction varies depending on the service at issue. This compartmentalization might have made sense fifteen years ago, but the advent of technology convergence has largely rendered this model obsolete. Yesterday's telephone and cable companies now compete head-to-head to offer consumers the vaunted "triple play" of voice, video, and internet services. But these telecommunications companies are finding it increasingly difficult to fit new operations into arcane, rigid regulatory compartments. Moreover, services that consumers view as …
Ill Telecommunications: How Internet Infrastructure Providers Lose First Amendment Protection, Nicholas Bramble
Ill Telecommunications: How Internet Infrastructure Providers Lose First Amendment Protection, Nicholas Bramble
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently proposed an Internet nondiscrimination rule: "Subject to reasonable network management, a provider of broadband Internet access service must treat lawful content, applications, and services in a nondiscriminatory manner." Among other requests, the FCC sought comment on whether the proposed nondiscrimination rule would "promote free speech, civic participation, and democratic engagement," and whether it would "impose any burdens on access providers' speech that would be cognizable for purposes of the First Amendment." The purpose of this Article is to suggest that a wide range of responses to these First Amendment questions, offered by telecommunications providers …
Wireless Net Neutrality Regulation And The Problem With Pricing: An Empirical, Cautionary Tale, Babette E.L. Boliek
Wireless Net Neutrality Regulation And The Problem With Pricing: An Empirical, Cautionary Tale, Babette E.L. Boliek
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
I present here a unique empirical analysis of the consumer welfare benefits of prior regulation in the mobile telecommunications industry. In particular, I analyze the relative consumer benefits of state rate regulation and federal entry regulation. The institution of filing requirements and FTC review and approval of various consumer pricing regimes is highly analogous to the consumer price controls imposed by various state level public utility commissions in the past. Furthermore, the imposition of a zero-price rule is analogous to past rate regulation; in particular it is similar to past wholesale regulation with its underlying principles of open access and …
Regulating Robocalls: Are Automated Calls The Sound Of, Or A Threat To, Democracy, Jason C. Miller
Regulating Robocalls: Are Automated Calls The Sound Of, Or A Threat To, Democracy, Jason C. Miller
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
African-American voters receive a phone message implying that they are not registered to vote. Others hear "an almost threatening male voice," a "fake New York accent," factual distortions about legislation, false endorsements from controversial groups, calls promoting one candidate claiming to be from his opponent, and a constant barrage of annoying phone calls designed to make voters think a different candidate was sponsoring them. These messages were delivered through automated political telephone calls, also known as robocalls. Robocalls are cheap and efficient--one can deliver a pre-recorded message through 100,000 automated phone calls in one hour for only $2000. Consequently, robocalls …
When Mobile Phones Are Rfid-Equipped - Finding E.U.-U.S. Solutions To Protect Consumer Privacy And Facilitate Mobile Commerce, Nancy J. King
When Mobile Phones Are Rfid-Equipped - Finding E.U.-U.S. Solutions To Protect Consumer Privacy And Facilitate Mobile Commerce, Nancy J. King
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
New mobile phones have been designed to include delivery of mobile advertising and other useful location-based services, but have they also been designed to protect consumers' privacy? One of the key enabling technologies for these new types of phones and new mobile services is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), a wireless communication technology that enables the unique identification of tagged objects. In the case of RFID-enabled mobile phones, the personal nature of the devices makes it very likely that, by locating a phone, businesses will also be able to locate its owner. Consumers are currently testing new RFID-enabled phones around the …
Justice, And Only Justice, You Shall Pursue: Network Neutrality, The First Amendment And John Rawls's Theory Of Justice, Amit M. Schejter, Moran Yemini
Justice, And Only Justice, You Shall Pursue: Network Neutrality, The First Amendment And John Rawls's Theory Of Justice, Amit M. Schejter, Moran Yemini
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
As broadband becomes the public's technology of choice to access the Internet, it is also emerging as the battlefield upon which the struggle for control of the Internet is being fought. Operators who provide physical access to the service claim the right to discriminate among the content providers who use the infrastructure in which the operators have invested. In contrast, content providers warn that exercising such a policy would "undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success."[...] For academic observers, analysis of this issue has thus far been confined to the areas of property law, innovation, and …
Application Of The Public-Trust Doctrine And Principles Of Natural Resource Management To Electromagnetic Spectrum, Patrick S. Ryan
Application Of The Public-Trust Doctrine And Principles Of Natural Resource Management To Electromagnetic Spectrum, Patrick S. Ryan
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The Electromagnetic spectrum is among our most valuable natural resources. Yet while the past few decades have seen a rich body of environmental law develop for other natural resources, this movement has largely passed over the electromagnetic spectrum. This Article argues that to remedy that situation, the public-trust doctrine, which is now a cornerstone of modern environmental law, should be extended to the electromagnetic spectrum. This extension would not be a leap: the public-trust doctrine has already been used to guarantee the public access to various bodies of water (not just navigable water), and to protect recreational lakes and beaches, …
The Need For Revisions To The Law Of Wiretapping And Interception Of Email, Robert A. Pikowsky
The Need For Revisions To The Law Of Wiretapping And Interception Of Email, Robert A. Pikowsky
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
I argue that a person's privacy interest in his email is the same as his privacy interest in a telephone conversation. Moreover, the privacy interest in email remains unchanged regardless of whether it is intercepted in transmission or covertly accessed from the recipient's mailbox. If one accepts this assumption, it follows that the level of protection against surveillance by law enforcement officers should be the same[...] As technology continues to blur the distinction between wire and electronic communication, it becomes apparent that a new methodology must be developed in order to provide logical and consistent protection to private communications. The …
Legacy Of Lost Opportunity: Designated Entities And The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Pcs Spectrum Auction, A, Mark W. Munson
Legacy Of Lost Opportunity: Designated Entities And The Federal Communications Commission's Broadband Pcs Spectrum Auction, A, Mark W. Munson
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The Federal Communications Commission's ("FCC") designated entity policy has challenged the efficiency of the use of auctions to allocate spectrum licenses. As an alternative to comparative hearings and lotteries, auctions provide an effective solution to the costs, administrative burdens, and delays associated with apportioning spectrum. Congress required the FCC to allow firms to participate in the auctions even if they had difficulty in obtaining financing. The FCC gave these firms, known as "designated entities," set-asides and other preferences to assist them in the competitive bidding process. In the broadband Personal Communications Services ("PCS") auctions, however, designated entities frequently were unable …
New German Telecommunications Act, The, Axel Spies, Jan F. Wrede
New German Telecommunications Act, The, Axel Spies, Jan F. Wrede
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
In the wake of the debate in Germany on how to weather the storms against the "marketplace Germany" (Unternehmensstandort Deutschland) the new German Telecommunications Act ("TA") has been earmarked as a milestone. Its supporters hail the TA to spur competition in Germany's telecommunications market, which they expect to have a turnover of over DM 100 billion (app. US $66 billion) by the year 2000.... This article seeks to summarize the salient features of the TA and to outline the perspectives for potential foreign investors in the German telecommunications market as to the regulatory environment such investor will face. For this …
Telecommunications Act Of 1996: 704 Of The Act And Protections Afforded The Telecommunications Provider In The Facilities Sitting Context, The, Peter M. Degnan, Scott A. Mclaren, Michael T. Tennant
Telecommunications Act Of 1996: 704 Of The Act And Protections Afforded The Telecommunications Provider In The Facilities Sitting Context, The, Peter M. Degnan, Scott A. Mclaren, Michael T. Tennant
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The Telecommunications Act of 1996, signed into law by President Clinton in February, addresses, among many other important subjects, some of the technical problems that have arisen from the increasing popularity of mobile communications. This article will provide an overview of the Act and will focus specifically on the protections afforded a telecommunications provider in § 704 of the Act.
Resale Issues In Telecommunications Regulation: An Economic Perspective, Alexander C. Larson
Resale Issues In Telecommunications Regulation: An Economic Perspective, Alexander C. Larson
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The purpose of this Article is to evaluate proposed resale policies from an economic perspective. Specifically, this Article evaluates whether mandated resale can be expected to lead to the benefits ascribed to it by its proponents. In addition, this Article identifies issues which must be addressed before an economically sound local service resale policy may be put into place.
The Information Highway Must Pay Its Way Through Cities: A Discussion Of The Authority Of State And Local Governments To Be Compensated For The Use Of Public Rights-Of-Way, Clarence A. West
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
In the ever-changing telecommunications industry there appears to be an enormous amount of confusion not only as to the appropriate amount of compensation chargeable to the users of public rights-of-way, but also as to the very authority of state and local governments to require compensation. This was not always the case. It has long been a well-settled legal principle that local governments may receive reasonable "rental" compensation from private commercial entities for their use of local public property for private economic gain, even where federal statutory law restricts local governments from denying access to rights-of-way for telecommunications services. For example, …
Telecommunications In Transition: Unbundling, Reintegration, And Competition, David J. Teece
Telecommunications In Transition: Unbundling, Reintegration, And Competition, David J. Teece
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
The world economy is experiencing a technological revolution, fueled by rapid advances in microelectronics, optics, and computer science, that in the 1990s and beyond will dramatically change the way people everywhere communicate, learn, and access information and entertainment. This technological revolution has been underway for about a decade. The emergence of a fully-interactive communications network, sometimes referred to as the "Information Superhighway," is now upon us. This highway, made possible by fiber optics and the convergence of several different technologies, is capable of delivering a plethora of new interactive entertainment, informational, and instructional services that are powerful and user-friendly. The …
Unconstitutional Telco-Cable Cross-Ownership Ban: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time, Arthur Bresnahan
Unconstitutional Telco-Cable Cross-Ownership Ban: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time, Arthur Bresnahan
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
This article is a survey of the law regarding the federal government's ability to regulate a telephone company's provision of video programming to subscribers in its service area. Part I of the article is a history of the telco-cable cross-ownership ban. Part II is an analysis of the cases striking down the ban, exploring the rationale of these cases on a consolidated basis. Part III is a summary of the applicable standards by which to evaluate future attempts by Congress or the FCC to regulate telephone companies' provision of video programming.
Reforming Fcc Regulation Of Dominant Telephone Carriers: Putting Some Teeth Into The Test For Predation, Thomas K. Gump
Reforming Fcc Regulation Of Dominant Telephone Carriers: Putting Some Teeth Into The Test For Predation, Thomas K. Gump
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note examines the ineffective protections against predatory pricing by AT&T contained in the price cap scheme. Part I outlines price cap regulation and explains how the FCC hopes that a test based on the average variable cost standard will detect predatory pricing. Part II argues that the FCC erred in adopting an average variable cost standard as the test for telecommunications predation because that standard ignores the high fixed costs common to all firms in the industry. Part II demonstrates that AT&T could engage in predatory pricing despite the protections contained in the regulatory scheme. Part II then examines …
Legal Responses To Commercial Transactions Employing Novel Communications Media, John Robinson Thomas
Legal Responses To Commercial Transactions Employing Novel Communications Media, John Robinson Thomas
Michigan Law Review
This Note analyzes contemporary business practices and specific characteristics of the new media, and suggests a judicial response consonant with courts' approaches to the earlier technologies of telegraphy and teletype. Part I examines the effect of the Statute of Frauds and rules of authentication upon contracts formed using these media. It concludes that documents produced by telefacsimile and electronic mail systems should be considered ordinary writings. Part II considers the Best Evidence Rule and argues that telefacsimiles and electronic mail transmissions should be considered the best evidence of the contract they memorialize. Part III evaluates doctrines of liability allocation in …
Questioning Broadcast Regulation, Jonathan Weinberg
Questioning Broadcast Regulation, Jonathan Weinberg
Michigan Law Review
A Review of Seven Dirty Words and Six Other Stories: Controlling the Content of Print and Broadcast by Matthew L. Spitzer
Cable Television Rights Of Way: Technology Expands The Concept Of Public Forum, Lawrence E. Spong
Cable Television Rights Of Way: Technology Expands The Concept Of Public Forum, Lawrence E. Spong
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note argues that the public forum analysis is the proper standard for evaluating a cable television company's claim of access to public rights of way. Part I discusses the constitutional basis for this standard. Part II examines the ideological justifications for the public forum doctrine and argues that public rights of way are public forums for cable television purposes. In addition, it explains the application of the public forum doctrine to cable access questions and the doctrine's advantages over other standards.
Expanding The Scarcity Rationale: The Constitutionality Of Public Access Requirements In Cable Franchise Agreements, Debora L. Osgood
Expanding The Scarcity Rationale: The Constitutionality Of Public Access Requirements In Cable Franchise Agreements, Debora L. Osgood
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Note argues that public access requirements should be upheld because they are constitutional and because they further the goals of the first amendment. As background for the debate over public access, Part I provides a brief description of cable television's history and regulation and discusses the case law concerning public access requirements. Part II examines the nature of the first amendment interests at stake in public access requirements. Before resolving the question of which interests should be protected, Part III argues that an expanded scarcity rationale should be used to justify cable regulation under the first amendment. Part IV …
Legal Framework Of Communications Programs In The European Space Agency, W. M. Thiebaut
Legal Framework Of Communications Programs In The European Space Agency, W. M. Thiebaut
Michigan Journal of International Law
The establishment of the ESC gave Europe the necessary impetus to start applications programs. In 1968, the third ESC ministerial meeting at Bad Godesberg, Federal Republic of Germany, unequivocally assigned space applications to ESRO, created the Committee of Senior Officials as an advisory board, and allocated a small budget for studies on application satellites. The Committee of Senior Officials set up a working group specifically to study possible European involvement in communication satellite programs. This working group consisted not only of representatives of the ESC and the space organizations ELDO and ESRO but also of the potential users of the …
Reciprocity In International Telecommunications Trade: A New Trade Barrier?, Sheryl Powers
Reciprocity In International Telecommunications Trade: A New Trade Barrier?, Sheryl Powers
Michigan Journal of International Law
To those advocating its use, reciprocity legislation is especially appropriate for the telecommunications industry. Only 5 percent of telecommunications equipment manufactured in the United States is exported for sale in other nations. Trade barriers, loyalty to domestic manufacturers and the importance of telecommunications to national defense systems have combined to restrict access to foreign markets in the telecommunications sector. To persuade other nations to increase market access in telecommunications, United States legislators added a requirement of reciprocity to two proposed bills, S.898 and H.R.5158. This note will examine these two bills, concluding that reciprocity is an inappropriate solution to United …
Integrated Servies Digital Network: Issues And Options For The World's Future Communications Systems, A. M. Rutkowski
Integrated Servies Digital Network: Issues And Options For The World's Future Communications Systems, A. M. Rutkowski
Michigan Journal of International Law
There has been virtually no public discussion of the significant public policy issues raised because of the intimidating nature of network engineering which forms the basis for nearly all the current dialogue. This paper discusses current ISDN developments, and sets forth an analytical framework within which these issues may be discussed.