Communications Law Commons^™

Amazon Didn’T Break Law By Banning Sales Of Google, Apple Streaming Players, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

Understand The Economics Of Cable Mergers, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

What’S Next On The Road To Net Neutrality?, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

Toward A Textualist Paradigm For Interpreting Emoticons, John Ehrett

John Ehrett

This Essay evaluates the dimensions of courts’ current interpretive dilemma, and subsequently sketches a possible framework for extending traditional statutory interpretation principles into this new domain. Throughout the analysis, the Essay describes the process of attaching cognizable linguistic referents to emoticons and emojis throughout as symbolical reification, and proposes a normative way forward for those tasked with deriving meaning from emoji-laden communications.

Privacy, Copyright, And Letters, Jeffrey Harrison

Jeffrey L Harrison

The focus of this Essay is the privacy of letters – the written manifestations of thoughts, intents, and the recollections of facts directed to a person or a narrowly defined audience. The importance of this privacy is captured in the novel Atonement by Ian McEwan and in the film based on the novel. The fulcrum from which the action springs is a letter that is read by someone to whom it was not addressed. The result is literally life-changing, even disastrous for a number of characters. One person dies, two people seemingly meant for each other are torn apart and …

Comcast And The Future Of Video Competition, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

Securities Exchange Act—Treatment Of Intrastate Use Of Telephone.—Rosen V. Albern Color Research, Inc.—And Nemitz V. Cunny, John Dobbyn

John Dobbyn

No abstract provided.

Net Neutrality Ruling: What Are The Fcc's Options?, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Rethink Possible When It Comes To Wireless Data Plans, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

From the introduction: The blogosphere has been abuzz this week with AT&T's introduction of a new "sponsored data" service. Under this service, Internet content providers such as Google or Yahoo could agree to pay for the data that the customer would otherwise incur when accessing the provider's services on his or her mobile device. This allows the customer to consume sponsored content without it counting against the customer's monthly data limit.

Fast Forward 50 Years: Protecting Uninhibited, Robust, And Wide-Open Debate After New York Times Co. V. Sullivan, Amy Sanders

Amy Kristin Sanders

We Should Promote Broadband Price Innovation, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Why Usage-Based Broadband Plans May Be Good For You, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

This article was also published on the Providence Journal's This New England Blog at http://blogs.providencejournal.com/ri-talks/this-new-england/2013/03/daniel-a-lyons-usage-based-broadband-plans-may-good-for-you.html

Internet Pricing: The Next Policy Frontier, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

In the past few years, broadband providers have begun shifting toward tiered service plans (sometimes known as usage-based pricing) that offer customers a fixed amount of data each month for a fee. On average, less than 2 percent of users exceed the most commonly-used tier of 300 GB; nearly 80 percent of consumers never exceed even 50 GB per month. Nevertheless, some critics such as Public Knowledge and the New America Foundation are concerned that this trend may bring higher prices and reduced service. Most recently, NAF analyst Benjamin Lennett asked whether tiered service plans are a plot by cable …

Dc Think Tank Tells Americans That Their Broadband Is Really Great, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Podcast, Usage-Based Pricing In Broadband, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Podcast: Talk America Inc. V. Michigan Bell Telephone Company, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Lessons From The Nextwave Saga: The Federal Communications Commission, The Courts, And The Use Of Market Forms To Perform Public Functions, Rodger Citron, John Rogovin

Rodger Citron

No abstract provided.

Podcast: Is Net Neutrality A Virtual Taking?, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Virtual Takings: The Coming Fifth Amendment Challenge To Net Neutrality Regulation, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

“Net neutrality” refers to the principle that broadband providers should not limit the content and applications available over the Internet. Long a rallying cry of techies and academics, it has become one of the central pillars of the Obama Administration’s telecommunications policy. The Federal Communications Commission’s efforts to regulate the “onramp to the Internet” have attracted significant attention from the telecommunications industry and the academic community, which have debated whether the proposed restrictions violate broadband providers’ First Amendment rights. But there is an additional constitutional implication of net neutrality that has not yet been sufficiently addressed in the scholarly literature: …

Tethering The Administrative State: The Case Against Chevron Deference For Fcc Jurisdictional Claims, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

Like many other agencies, the Federal Communications Commission has seen significant regulatory growth under President Obama. But unlike health care, financial reform, and other areas, this growth has come without statutory guidance from Congress. The FCC’s assertion of jurisdiction over broadband service is reminiscent of its earlier attempts to regulate cable and to deregulate telephone service, efforts that courts have viewed skeptically in the absence of specific statutory authorization. But this skepticism is in tension with Chevron, which grants agencies substantial deference to interpret ambiguities in the statutes that they administer. This article argues that Chevron deference should not extend …

Can Google-Tv Help Liberate Cable-Tv?, Erik Ugland

Erik Ugland

No abstract provided.

The Reporter's Privilege Goes Incognito In Wisconsin, Erik Ugland

Erik Ugland

No abstract provided.

Concurring In Part & Concurring In The Confusion, Sonja West

Sonja R. West

When a federal appellate court decided last year that two reporters must either reveal their confidential sources to a grand jury or face jail time, the court did not hesitate in relying on the majority opinion in the Supreme Court's sole comment on the reporter's privilege--Branzburg v. Hayes. "The Highest Court has spoken and never revisited the question. Without doubt, that is the end of the matter," Judge Sentelle wrote for the three-judge panel on the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. By this declaration, the court dismissed with a wave of its judicial hand the arguments …

'My Little Genius' And The Role Of The Fcc, Erik Ugland

Erik Ugland

No abstract provided.

The Aims Of Public Scholarship In Media Law And Ethics, Erik Ugland

Erik Ugland

No abstract provided.

Bloggers As Limited-Purpose Public Figures: New Standards For A New Media Platform, Amy Sanders

Amy Kristin Sanders

Privacy Concern In Google Voice Call Recording, Michael Katz, James Tuthill

Michael Katz

The Federal Communications Commission, taking note of AT&T's complaint, has written to Google with questions about its call blocking. But the implications for our privacy of software-managed call services like Google Voice are a much greater threat to consumers, and that's where the FCC should direct its energy - immediately.

A Comment On James Grimmelmann’S Saving Facebook, Susan Freiwald

Susan Freiwald

This paper comments on Professor James Grimmelmann’s article Saving Facebook (94 Iowa L. Rev. 1137 (2009) http://http://works.bepress.com/james_grimmelmann/20). provides a useful analysis of the privacy debates surrounding this social networking web site. Grimmelmann provides valuable sociological and psychological material for future legislators to draw on in considering legislative control of Facebook and similar sites. Grimmelmann uses Facebook to provide concrete examples of privacy concerns to build on the more general framework provided by the works of Daniel Solove. The comment does take exception to Grimmelmann’s analysis in several points. Chief among these is Grinnlemann’s lack of evidence in support of his …

Fcc Should Get With The Times, Erik Ugland

Erik Ugland

No abstract provided.

When Is Enough Too Much? The Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act Of 2005 And The Eighth Amendment’S Prohibition On Excessive Fines, Amy Sanders

Amy Kristin Sanders