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Full-Text Articles in Communications Law
Calling All Angles: Perspectives On Regulating Internet Telephony, Melissa Winberg
Calling All Angles: Perspectives On Regulating Internet Telephony, Melissa Winberg
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
In 1996, Congress passed the Telecommunications Act, substantially revising the Communications Act of 1934 to reflect technological advances, including the Internet, and Congress's deregulatory goals. Currently, however, new technologies are challenging the viability of the statutory definitions and regulatory schemes of the statute. Internet telephony, commonly called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), is both a replacement for traditional telephone service and a new web-based technology. Given the current competitive political climate and the magnitude of the interests involved, Congress is unlikely to succeed in altering the telecommunications regime. Thus, the Federal Communications Commission, which has the authority to regulate interstate …
Pay For Play: An Old Tactic In A New Environment, Douglas Abell
Pay For Play: An Old Tactic In A New Environment, Douglas Abell
Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
Promotional strategies involving payola --the payment of cash, drugs, or any other consideration to radio stations and their employees in exchange for airplay-- are generally illegal under federal law. Theoretically, these laws prohibit only undisclosed payola practices. Payola scandals of the late 1980s, however, illustrate that such practices have not ended. In fact, the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (the "Act") created an environment in which pay-for-play, a disclosed and fully legal form of payola, could thrive. The possibility of returning to practices reminiscent of illegal payola has, however, sparked debate as to whether record labels should ever pay radio stations …
Antitrust Enforcement, Freedom Of The Press, And The "Open Market": The Supreme Court On The Structure And Conduct Of Mass Media, William E. Lee
Antitrust Enforcement, Freedom Of The Press, And The "Open Market": The Supreme Court On The Structure And Conduct Of Mass Media, William E. Lee
Vanderbilt Law Review
This Article examines the Supreme Court's attempts to foster open markets by altering either the structure or the conduct of mass media enterprises." Structure and conduct are the two main determinants of market performance. Market structure "means those characteristics of the organization of a market that seem to exercise a strategic influence on the nature of competition and pricing within the market." Some characteristics of market structure include degree of buyer concentration, degree of seller concentration, degree of product differentiation, and entry conditions. Market conduct, on the other hand, comprises the practices, policies, and devices which firms employ in adjusting …