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Full-Text Articles in Communications Law
Rehearsal For Media Regulation: Congress Versus The Telegraph-News Monopoly, 1866-1900, Menahem Blondheim
Rehearsal For Media Regulation: Congress Versus The Telegraph-News Monopoly, 1866-1900, Menahem Blondheim
Federal Communications Law Journal
In this Article, Menahem Blondheim presents a critical historical analysis of the dawn of communications regulation as it began with the evolution of domestic telegraphy and developed into a coherent link between 19th century technological, business, and social developments and twentieth century First Amendment thought. First, the Article examines the political and economic environment which led to the development of national telegraph and news networks, like Western Union and the Associated Press. The Author then proceeds to assess the role of the mid-to-late nineteenth century American legislature, and how the debate over telegraph and wire service regulation realigned the powers …
Unmasking Hidden Commercials In Broadcasting: Origins Of The Sponsorship Identification Regulations, 1927-1963, Richard Kielbowicz, Linda Lawson
Unmasking Hidden Commercials In Broadcasting: Origins Of The Sponsorship Identification Regulations, 1927-1963, Richard Kielbowicz, Linda Lawson
Federal Communications Law Journal
This Article by Richard Kielbowicz and Linda Lawson is an exploration of the origins of sponsorship identification regulations as they pertained to early radio and television programming. Beginning with the statutory sponsorship identification requirement enacted in 1927, the Authors trace the development of sponsorship identification rules in the communications industry. By arguing that such rules express a basic goal of American communication law and policy, Kielbowicz and Lawson analyze trends and developments in sponsorship regulation that did not materialize in the 1930s and 1940s because of the nature of early broadcast sponsorship. The Authors then assert that those same early …
Legislating The Tower Of Babel: International Restrictions On Internet Content And The Marketplace Of Ideas, Michael F. Sutton
Legislating The Tower Of Babel: International Restrictions On Internet Content And The Marketplace Of Ideas, Michael F. Sutton
Federal Communications Law Journal
The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects the expression of diverse viewpoints in virtually any medium. Nevertheless, the modern novelty of "borderless" communication via the Internet strains our ideal of keeping government out of the business of regulating speech. This Note reveals the conflict between the First Amendment's national protections and the Internet's lack of national boundaries, while also arguing for international intervention for the protection of free speech. This Author articulates the real danger of "watered-down speech" unless both the FCC and the international community provide regulations and harmonized international standards for online content that reflect First Amendment …
Promoting Innovation To Prevent The Internet From Becoming A Wasteland, Zoe Baird
Promoting Innovation To Prevent The Internet From Becoming A Wasteland, Zoe Baird
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Revisiting The Vast Wasteland, Newton N. Minow, Fred H. Cate
Revisiting The Vast Wasteland, Newton N. Minow, Fred H. Cate
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
From Vast Wasteland To Electronic Garden: Responsibilities In The New Video Environment, Charles M. Firestone
From Vast Wasteland To Electronic Garden: Responsibilities In The New Video Environment, Charles M. Firestone
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Avast Ye Wasteland: Reflections On America’S Most Famous Exercise In “Public Interest” Piracy, Robert Corn-Revere
Avast Ye Wasteland: Reflections On America’S Most Famous Exercise In “Public Interest” Piracy, Robert Corn-Revere
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Forty Years Of Wandering In The Wasteland, Nicholas Johnson
Forty Years Of Wandering In The Wasteland, Nicholas Johnson
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Promoting The Public Interest In The Digital Era, Henry Geller
Promoting The Public Interest In The Digital Era, Henry Geller
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Tv: A Vast Oasis Of Public Interest Programming, Edward O. Fritts
Tv: A Vast Oasis Of Public Interest Programming, Edward O. Fritts
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Electronic Oases Take Root In Mr. Minow's Vast Wasteland, Edward J. Markey
Electronic Oases Take Root In Mr. Minow's Vast Wasteland, Edward J. Markey
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
Manhattan, Cass R. Sunstein
Measuring Quality Television, Russ Taylor
Measuring Quality Television, Russ Taylor
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
The “Vast Wasteland” In Retrospect, Joel Rosenbloom
The “Vast Wasteland” In Retrospect, Joel Rosenbloom
Federal Communications Law Journal
No abstract provided.
The Legacy Of The Federal Communications Commission’S Computer Inquiries, Robert Cannon
The Legacy Of The Federal Communications Commission’S Computer Inquiries, Robert Cannon
Federal Communications Law Journal
The FCC and the computer industry have learned much in the 35 years since the agency first began to regulate computer networks. Safeguards were imposed on common carriers for the benefit of the networks. This Article examines the so-called Computer Inquiries and how they have repeatedly re-examined and redefined the nature of the regulatory treatment of computer networks over communications networks. The Author reviews Computer I, in which the FCC first attempted to divide the world technologically between computers that ran communications networks ("pure communications") and computers at the end of telephone lines with which people interacted ("pure data processing"). …
Cap-Sized: How The Promise Of The Price Cap Voyage To Competition Was Lost In A Sea Of Good Intentions, Gregory J. Vogt
Cap-Sized: How The Promise Of The Price Cap Voyage To Competition Was Lost In A Sea Of Good Intentions, Gregory J. Vogt
Federal Communications Law Journal
This Article explores the Federal Communication Commission’s efforts to regulate into being marketplace economic forces through price cap regulation. A comprehensive analysis of the history and policies behind price cap regulation of LECs offers guidance for the future. Ultimately, while progress towards local exchange competition has been made, certain important adjustments should be implemented to allow price caps to achieve their full potential. These changes, consistent with the original theory of price caps, will in turn help speed the transition to competition.
The First Amendment Case Against Fcc Ip Telephony Regulation, Tuan N. Samahon
The First Amendment Case Against Fcc Ip Telephony Regulation, Tuan N. Samahon
Federal Communications Law Journal
This Comment argues that IP telephony, like handbills and traditional print media, deserves First Amendment protection against FCC regulatory authority. After briefly reviewing the IP telephony phenomenon within the larger context of "digital convergence," the Comment examines the FCC and Supreme Court’s technologically driven First Amendment jurisprudence—particularly, the First Amendment’s conspicuous absence from the IP telephony dialogue, and, correspondingly, the prominence of assurances of regulatory forbearance in Congress, the courts, and the FCC. In response, the Author offers First Amendment content-based and content-neutral arguments against the proposed telephony regulations. At the very least, the affordability and innovation IP telephony offers …
Schizophrenia Among Carriers: How Common And Private Carriers Trade Places, Rob Frieden
Schizophrenia Among Carriers: How Common And Private Carriers Trade Places, Rob Frieden
Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review
This article will examine court cases and actions by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that distort the traditional concepts of common and private carriage by establishing new rights and responsibilities previously applicable to the other category of carrier. This article will also consider the feasibility of (a) maintaining the traditional common carrier regulatory model and (b) continuing the application of that model to basic services provided by local exchange carriers (LECs). This is especially important as LECs qualify to become private carriers tapping new market opportunities, even within the same geographical region where they provide basic services. Finally, this article …
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, …
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 …
American Broadcasting And The First Amendment, René L. Todd
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.
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
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
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