Intellectual Property Law Commons^™

Message In A Bottleneck: The Need For Fcc-Mandated Interoperability Among Instant Messaging Providers, Matthew A. Goldberg

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

In August 2003, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reversed a ruling it had made in 2001 regarding regulation of America Online's (AOL) instant messaging program. Instant messaging (IM) is one of the Internet's most popular technologies, used recreationally and to facilitate business transactions. It is a major worldwide communications tool with the potential to serve as a catalyst for a new generation of Internet applications based on real-time computing. In contrast to Internet technologies like e-mail and access to the World Wide Web through browser programs like Microsoft Explorer or Mozilla's Firefox, the technical underpinnings of these IM systems are …