Communications Law Commons^™

Privacy Issues In The Age Of Social Media M&A, Amy A. Hinkler

Amy A. Hinkler

No abstract provided.

Flawed Transparency: Shared Data Collection And Disclosure Challenges For Google Glass And Similar Technologies, Jonathan I. Ezor

Jonathan I. Ezor

Current privacy law and best practices assume that the party collecting the data is able to describe and disclose its practices to those from and about whom the data are collected. With emerging technologies such as Google Glass, the information being collected by the wearer may be automatically shared to one or more third parties whose use may be substantially different from that of the wearer. Often, the wearer may not even know what information is being uploaded, and how it may be used. This paper will analyze the current state of U.S. law and compliance regarding personal information collection …

A Priliminary Critique Of Draft Media Laws With Special Reference To The Kica Bill 2013, Muiru Ngugi

Charles Muiru Ngugi

The Constitution of Kenya 2010 gives priority to the enactment of statutes relating to media law. These new laws are expected to be aligned to the very progressive provisions on free expression, media freedom as well as data protection and freedom of information. I have quickly perused through the recently published Kenya Information and Communications Authority (KICA) and Media Council of Kenya (MCK) Bills, and proffer my initial reaction.

A Comprehensive Approach To Bridging The Gap Between Cyberbullying Rules And Regulations And The Protections Offered By The First Amendment For Off-Campus Student Speech, Vahagn Amirian

Vahagn Amirian

No abstract provided.

Sponsorship Implications Of The Lance Armstrong V. Usps Lawsuit, John A. Fortunato

John A Fortunato

Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999 through 2005. At the height of his success and popularity Armstrong’s cycling team was sponsored by the United States Postal Service (USPS). Armstrong’s Tour de France victories were marred by speculation that he and his cycling teammates were using performance enhancing drugs. After years of denial, in January, 2013, Armstrong finally admitted in an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he had in fact used performance enhancing drugs. On February 22, 2013, the United States Justice Department announced that it had joined a lawsuit filed by former cycling teammate …

Internet Policy’S Next Frontier: Data Caps, Tiered Service Plans, And Usage-Based Broadband Pricing, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

Usage-based pricing has rapidly become one of the most controversial topics in Internet policy. Both wired and wireless broadband providers are migrating from flat-rate pricing to a variety of consumption-based pricing models. Some consumer groups have viewed the change to usage-based pricing with skepticism, fearing it will usher in an era of higher prices, deteriorating service, and increasingly anticompetitive conduct. This article evaluates the merits of data caps, tiered-service plans, and other usage-based pricing strategies. It finds that usage-based broadband pricing is not inherently anti-consumer or anti-competitive. Rather, it reflects a cluster of pricing strategies through which a broadband company …

The Challenge Of Voip To Legacy Federal And State Regulatory Regimes, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Visual Gut Punch: Persuasion, Emotion, And The Constitutional Meaning Of Graphic Disclosure, Ellen P. Goodman

ellen p. goodman

The ability of government to “nudge” with information mandates, or merely to inform consumers of risks, is circumscribed by First Amendment interests that have been poorly articulated in the relevant law and commentary. New graphic cigarette warning labels supplied courts with the first opportunity to assess the informational interests attending novel forms of product disclosures. The D.C. Circuit enjoined them as unconstitutional, compelled by a narrative that the graphic labels converted government from objective informer to ideological persuader, shouting its warning to manipulate consumer decisions. This interpretation will leave little room for graphic disclosure and is already being used to …

The Spectrum Handbook 2013, J. Armand Musey Cfa

J. Armand Musey, CFA

This Handbook has three objectives: 1) to serve as a primer for explaining the complex issues around the use of electromagnetic spectrum; 2) to analyze, from both an economic and a legal perspective, the regulatory processes being considered or underway to reallocate or change the use of spectrum bands and; 3) to be a reference source for industry professionals. Part I of the Handbook provides an overview of the spectrum and the regulatory process. Part II of the Handbook explains the various available spectrum bands, discussing their range, location, and physical properties and how these impact their ability to be …

"Merchants Of Discontent": An Exploration Of The Psychology Of Advertising, Addiction, And The Implications For Commercial Speech, Tamara R. Piety

Tamara R. Piety

In this paper, I attempt to draw parallels between the psychology of commercial advertising and marketing and the psychology of addiction. Both appear to be characterized by denial, escapism, narcissism, isolation, insatiability, impatience, and diminished sensitivity. Advertising appeals to these impulses and addiction is marked by them. In what follows, I explore these parallels in general and then explore the potential consequences or side effects in three specific contexts: the advertising of addictive products, advertising and children, and advertising and women. In these three areas, there is some evidence that advertising may be contributing to negative social phenomena in a …

Consumers As Marketers: An Analysis Of The Facebook “Like” Feature As An Endorsement, Chang Zhou

Chang Zhou

No abstract provided.

Margin Squeeze In The Telecommunication Market. Transitional Period Between Dial-Up And Broadband Internet. Teliasonera Case, Emanuela Matei

Emanuela A. Matei

No abstract provided.

We Should Promote Broadband Price Innovation, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

No abstract provided.

Fifteen Minutes Of Infamy: Privileged Reporting And The Problem Of Perpetual Reputational Harm, Richard J. Peltz-Steele

Richard J. Peltz-Steele

This Article provides an overview of the labyrinth of media tort defenses, specifically the four privileges – fair comment, fair report, neutral reportage, and wire service – that come into play when the media republish defamatory content about criminal suspects and defendants without specific intent to injure. The Article then discusses these privileges in light of a hypothetical case involving a highly publicized crime and an indicted suspect, against whom charges are later dropped, but who suffers perpetual reputational harm from the out-of-context republication online of news related to his indictment. The Article demonstrates how the four privileges would operate …

I Programmi Per Elaboratore E I Confini Del Diritto D'Autore. La Corte Di Giustizia Nega La Tutela A Funzionalità, Linguaggio Di Programmazione E Formato Dei File Di Dati (Computer Programs And The Boundaries Of Copyright: The Court Of Justice Denies Protection To Functionalities, Programming Language And Formats Of Data Files), Guido Noto La Diega

Guido Noto La Diega

A comment to the Sas Institute Inc. v. World Programming Ltd case [Court of Justice, Grand Chamber, 2 May 2012, C-406/10]. It is one of the most important European decisions in the field of computer programs and it is notable both from a practical and a theoretical point of view. The European Court of Justice denies protection to functionalities, programming language and format of data files, because they have to be considered as 'ideas' and not as 'expression'. The idea/expression dichotomy, often called into question especially in software copyright, is placed at the core of a not anymore ignorable, both …

Internet Control Or Internet Censorship? Comparing The Control Models Of China, Singapore, And The United States To Guide Taiwan’S Choice, Jeffrey Li

Jeffrey Li

Internet censorship generally refers to unjustified online speech scrutiny and control by the government or government-approved measures for Internet control. The danger of Internet censorship is the chilling effect and the substantial harm on free speech, a cornerstone of democracy, in cyberspace. This paper compares China’s blocking and filtering system, the class license system of Singapore, and the government-private partnership model of the United States to identify the features, and pros and cons of each model on the international human rights. By finding lessons from each of the model, this paper suggests Taiwan should remain its current meager internet control …

Technology Convergence And Federalism: The Case Of Voip Regulation, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

From the introduction The Vermont Supreme Court may soon consider whether federal law permits the Public Service Board to regulate certain voice-over-internet-protocol (VoIP ) services. Across the Hudson, Governor Andrew Cuomo recently sought to bar the New York Public Service Commission from adopting similar regulations. And these states are not alone: from Maine to Florida, several states are considering whether their jurisdiction over traditional telephone service encompasses this new technology, through which nearly one third of American landline households receive telephone service. If so, nationwide VoIP providers could face up to fifty new legal regimes with which they must comply …

Has Skinner Killed The Katz? Are Society's Expectations Of Privacy Reasonable In Today's Techological World?, Jason Forcier

Jason Forcier

The right to privacy has and will remain a hotly contested debate about American liberties. In 2012, a 3-0 decision by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in United States v. Melvin Skinner, the court held that there is no “reasonable expectation of privacy in the data given off by. . . cellphone[s].” Given today’s explosion of cellular technology and use of smart phones, is it unreasonable to believe a person should remain secure in their "person" and “effects," as guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment, from unreasonable searches and seizures? Furthermore, with police requiring only a subpoena to a obtain …

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

Malas Leyes, Peores Reglamentos. Apuntes Críticos Sobre El Porvenir De La Tutela De La Persona Frente Al Tratamiento De Datos En El Perú, Leysser L. Leon

Leysser L. León

Se comentan críticamente algunas de las más controvertidas disposiciones contenidas en el reciente Reglamento de la Ley peruana de Protección de Datos Personales. Se echa de menos, en especial, y atendiendo a la labor reglamentaria del Ministerio de Justicia reflejada en este dispositivo, una actitud consciente de los funcionarios acerca la importancia de la tutela de la autodeterminación informativa en los países que, como el Perú, siguen sin resolver graves males sociales, como la discriminación.

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 …

Sex Is Less Offensive Than Violence: A Call To Update Obscenity Jurisprudence, Rachel Simon

Rachel Simon

This article addresses the gender bias presented by the disparate treatment of sex and violence under current obscenity jurisprudence. Under the controlling standard set forth by the Supreme Court in Miller v. California, sexual works may readily be regulated as obscenity, while violent works unequivocally may not. This article posits that this disparate treatment is the product of entrenched stereotypes about the way men and women “should” react to sex and violence, and notes the hypocrisy of failing to apply the same reasoning to assessments of violent versus sexual material.

First, reliance on “community standards” to define what material …

Fixing Frand: A Pseudo-Pool Approach To Standards-Based Patent Licensing, Jorge Contreras

Jorge L Contreras

Technical interoperability standards are critical elements of mobile telephones, laptop computers, digital files, and thousands of other products in the modern networked economy. Most such standards are developed in so-called voluntary standards-development organizations (SDOs) that require participants to license patents essential to the standard on terms that are “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” (FRAND). FRAND commitments are thought to avoid the problem of patent hold-up: the imposition of excessive royalty demands after a standard has been widely adopted in the market. While, at first blush, FRAND commitments seem to assure product vendors that patents will not obstruct the manufacture and sale …

“Smut And Nothing But”: The Fcc, Indecency, And Regulatory Transformations In The Shadows, Lili Levi

Lili Levi

For almost a century, American broadcasting has received a lesser degree of constitutional protection than the print medium. Although many of the FCC’s regulations in “the public interest” have been upheld against First Amendment challenge on the ground that broadcasting is exceptional, the traditional reasons given for such exceptionalism – scarcity and pervasiveness – have become increasingly careworn. Fighting that consensus, the FCC has aggressively pursued the regulation of indecency on radio and television since 2003. When the FCC’s enhanced indecency prohibitions swept up U2 front-man Bono’s fleeting expletive on a music awards show, broadcasters finally thought they had found …

The Impact Of Data Caps And Other Forms Of Usage-Based Pricing For Broadband Access, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

In recent years, broadband providers have introduced data caps and other plans that charge customers based on use. While regulators have generally approved of this shift, some consumer groups fear that usage-based pricing will lead to higher prices and deteriorating service. They also fear data caps allow companies like Comcast to protect their cable businesses from upstarts like Netflix.

This article evaluates the merits of data caps and other usage-based pricing strategies. Usagebased pricing shifts more network costs onto heavier Internet users. This can reduce costs for others and make broadband more accessible to low-income consumers. Usage-based pricing can also …

Why Broadband Pricing Freedom Is Good For Consumers, Daniel A. Lyons

Daniel Lyons

From the introduction: Usage-based pricing has rapidly become one of the most high-profile topics in Internet policy. In the past few years, many broadband providers have migrated from all-you-can-eat flat-rate pricing to consumption-based pricing models such as tiered service plans or data caps. This trend has been most prominent in the wireless sector, where monthly limits were an almost inevitable solution to the surge in bandwidth demand unleashed by the smartphone revolution. Some fixed broadband providers have adopted much larger data caps for residential broadband use as well.

The Internet As The World's Biggest Copy Machine, And How Plaintiff's Bar Seeks To Monetize It, Daniel Lyons

Daniel Lyons

On February 23, 2013, Professor Lyons presented at the First Circuit Spring Meeting of the American Bar Association Student Division.

Institutionalized Word Taboo: The Continuing Saga Of Fcc Indecency Regulation, Christopher M. Fairman

Christopher M Fairman

Indecency regulation by the Federal Communication Commission and Supreme Court is the product of word taboo—the subconscious, emotional, involuntary avoidance of certain words out of fear that some harm will occur if they are spoken. Acting in tandem, the Court and the Commissioners create institutionalized word taboo based upon the assumption that broadcast media’s pervasive and intrusive presence into the home endangers unsupervised children. Technological innovation renders this premise invalid today, but institutionalized word taboo remains. This article (1) traces the rise of indecency regulation, (2) explains the invalidity of the assumptions used to justify it, (3) introduces word taboo …

Copyright Freeconomics, John M. Newman

John M. Newman

Innovation has wreaked creative destruction on traditional content platforms. During the decade following Napster’s rise and fall, industry organizations launched litigation campaigns to combat the dramatic downward pricing pressure created by the advent of zero-price, copyright-infringing content. These campaigns attracted a torrent of debate, still ongoing, among scholars and stakeholders—but this debate has missed the forest for the trees. Industry organizations have abandoned litigation efforts, and many copyright owners now compete directly with infringing products by offering licit content at a price of $0.

This sea change has ushered in an era of “copyright freeconomics.” Drawing on an emerging body …

The Implausibility Of Secrecy, Mark Fenster

Mark Fenster

Government secrecy frequently fails. Despite the executive branch’s obsessive hoarding of certain kinds of documents and its constitutional authority to do so, recent high-profile events—among them the WikiLeaks episode, the Obama administration’s celebrated leak prosecutions, and the widespread disclosure by high-level officials of flattering confidential information to sympathetic reporters—undercut the image of a state that can classify and control its information. The effort to control government information requires human, bureaucratic, technological, and textual mechanisms that regularly founder or collapse in an administrative state, sometimes immediately and sometimes after an interval. Leaks, mistakes, open sources—each of these constitutes a path out …