Law Commons^™

Myths And Misunderstandings, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

This article explores the utility of the Holmsean marketplace of ideas when considering the regulation of different forms of communication technology.

Impending Legal Issues For Integrated Broadband Networks, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

Given human nature, computer networks are prone to many of the same legal problems that have affected earlier forms of communication. The insatiable human appetite for mischief, information, pornography, and anti-competitive activity guarantees that the many legal conflicts that afflict computers, telephones, cable television, and broadcasting will be visited upon IBNs. This article focuses on several of these legal problems. By examining the history of controversies involving the electronic media and breaches of security, protection of privacy, regulation of sexual material and refusals to deal, this article attempts to outline some ways to think about applying the lessons from the …

Amending The Oversight: Legislative Drafting And The Cable Act, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

The Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984 ("Cable Act") represented the first comprehensive federal law governing the no-longer new communications technology of cable television. After years of confronting a "patchwork" of federal, state, and local regulation, the cable industry, government regulators, and the public were told that the Cable Act would create a "national policy concerning cable communications," and firmly "establish guidelines for the exercise of Federal, State, and local authority."

Unfortunately, the Cable Act failed to fulfill its numerous objectives. Advertised as a careful balance, the Cable Act was administratively and judicially converted to a lopsided grant of victory …

Regulation Of Fiberoptic Integrated Broadband Networks: Common Carriage, Ownership And Rates, Michael Botein

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court In Politics., Terrance Sandalow

Reviews

Despite all that has been written about the bitter struggle initiated by President Reagan's nomination of Robert Bork to a seat on the Supreme Court, its most remarkable feature, that it was waged over a judicial appointment, has drawn relatively little comment. Two hundred years after the Philadelphia Convention, Hamilton's "least dangerous" branch - least dangerous because it would have "no influence over either the sword or the purse, no direction either of the strength or the wealth of the society, and can take no active resolution whatever"'-had come to occupy so important a place in the nation's political life …

Cable Television And The Compulsory Copyright License, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

The First Amendment And The International "Free Flow" Of Information, Fred H. Cate

Articles by Maurer Faculty

No abstract provided.

Metro Broadcasting, Inc. V. Fcc: Requiem For A Heavyweight, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jurisdiction Over Telecommunications: Alberta Government Telephones V. Crtc, Peter W. Hogg

Articles & Book Chapters

In Alberta Government Telephones v. Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the Supreme Court of Canada held that AGT was a federal undertaking, but that as an agent of the provincial Crown, it was not bound by regulations of the CRTC, made under the authority of the federal Railway Act. AGT is therefore presently unregulated. The author proposes that AGT was characterized as a federal undertaking on the basis of its membership within Telecom Canada and its border connections with neighbouring telephone companies, which allow it to provide interprovincial and international service. The AGT decision leaves open, however, the issue of …

Intellectual And Informational Property Rights: Panel Iv - Introduction: Property In Mass Media Law, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

This is the panel on intellectual and informational property rights. As you can see, there are three panelists other than myself: Ed Kitch, Stephen Carter, and Frank Easterbrook.

I want to begin with just a few thoughts on an area that I know something about: press and media law. I would like to say two things about the notion of property and how it arises in the context of a few problems in the area of mass media law.

Supplemental Comments, J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Distress Sales: A Direct Benefit To Non-Minorities, J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Distress Sales: A Direct Benefit To Non-Minorities, J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Distress Sales: A Direct Benefit To Non-Minorities, J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.

The Evolution Of Distress Sales: A Direct Benefit To Non-Minorities, J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.

Cable Traffic And The First Amendment Must-Carry Under A Diversity Approach And Antitrust As Possible Alternative, Bruno Vandermeulen

LLM Theses and Essays

Recent technological progress in the field of telecommunications has greatly changed the competitive structure between broadcasters, cable operators, and telephone companies. The legal and economic environment for these media participants has shifted, and new problems have arisen. One major problem is the enhanced threat of concentration of media corporations, as corporate bigness becomes desirable and the number of diversified owners of media outlets continues to decrease. This paper analyzes broadcasting regulations and subsequent case law to show the concern by the legislature and regulatory agencies to preserve diversity in opinion and media-ownership through emphasis on “localism” and a “marketplace of …

Opening The International Television Market To Greater Program Diversity, Donna Coleman Gregg

Scholarly Articles

This Article examines various national regulatory systems that govern television programming, their impact on the vitality and diversity of the entertainment program market, and their ability to withstand forces for change.

The Northern Ireland Broadcasting Ban: Some Reflections On Judicial Review, Geoffrey Bennett, Russell L. Weaver

Journal Articles

This Essay initially examines the British government's ban on its broadcasting networks that restricts coverage of Northern Ireland organizations, and concludes by making some reflections on the system of judicial review in the United States. Professors Weaver and Bennett note that a comparable ban in the United States probably would be held unconstitutional. In Great Britain, however, the courts lack a similar power of judicial review, leaving the question of the Ban's legitimacy to the political process. While Great Britain enjoys a relatively free society, the authors conclude that government control over the British media poses troubling problems and suggests …

The Competitiveness Of The U.S. Telecommunications Industry: A New York Case Study, Michael Botein, Alan Pearce

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Statement On Pr7-180 "Public Service Commission Of The District Of Columbia Patricia Morris Worthy Resolution Of 1987", J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.

The Right To Speak, The Right To Hear, And The Right Not To Hear: The Technological Resolution To The Cable/Pornography Debate, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

The advent of cable television presented a new opportunity to consider the competing interests on each side of the free speech/pornography debate. This Article attempts to construct an analysis that will be consistent with Supreme Court teaching on how government, under the first amendment, may constitutionally regulate legal obscenity, particularly in the name of protecting those who wish to avoid exposure to such material.

The Article shows how, unlike earlier battles over technology and pornography, cable television presented the novel opportunity to have a technological rather than a censorial solution to this difficult problem.

The Bbc Gets A New Chairman And A Lot Of Trouble, Harvey L. Zuckman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Cable Television's New Legal Universe: Early Judicial Response To The Cable Act, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

On October 29, 1984, a new era began in the relationship between law and cable television. On that day, the first major law regulation cable television, the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984,was signed into law.

Early judicial attempts to interpret the Cable Act revealed the difficulties judges had with understanding the new legal regimen. A common thread running through these varied cases, if any, was the courts' apparent lack of appreciation of the Act's complexity. Many, though not all, decisions appear to misread congressional language and misinterpret congressional intent. The first part of this Article will discuss this problem …

Telecommunications And Black Americans: The Unmeasured And Untold Marketplace Factor, J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.

Joint Comments Of Howard University, The National Association Of Black-Owned Broadcasters, The National Bar Association And The National Conference Of Black Lawyers Communications Task Force, J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.

Deregulation Of Broadcasting In The United States: Quo Vadimus., Erwin Krasnow, Michael Botein

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Misrepresentation And The Fcc, Brian C. Murchison

Scholarly Articles

None available.

The Pursuit Of Pluralism: The Lessons From The New French Audiovisual Communications Law, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

Electronic mass communications, which have become increasingly influential over the past quarter century, have also undergone rapid and profound technological change. Constitutional governments around the world have struggled to apply their fundamental legal principals to the electronic media through sensible and balanced regulation. Perhaps the central problem in such regulation is to protect truth in the media, mainly by encouraging diversity, without allowing the regulators themselves to exert undue influence over what is disseminated over the airwaves and cables of a country's communications infrastructure. The following article traces the history of France's attempts to solve this problem in its electronic …

The Cable Communications Policy Act Of 1984: A Balancing Act On The Coaxial Wires, Michael I. Meyerson

All Faculty Scholarship

After three decades of what Chief Justice Burger termed ‘the almost explosive development’ of cable television, Congress updated the Communications Act of 1934 with the Cable Communications Policy Act of 1984. The Act represents the culmination of a ‘decade long effort to update the Communications Act of 1934 . . . and bring our outdated communications laws into the information age.’ The 1984 Cable Act was a complicated piece of legislation, the result of countless compromises and political deals. This Article explains how Congress attempted to balance the competing, and sometimes mutually exclusive, interests of the cable operators, cities, video …

The Authority To Repeal The Fairness Doctrine Rests Solely With Congress, J. Clay Smith Jr.

Selected Speeches

No abstract provided.