Communications Law Commons^™

Private Equity Funding For Minority Media Ownership, Vance H. Fried

Federal Communications Law Journal

This Article details the importance of private equity financing to all sizes and types of media companies. Much of the rapid growth of the Internet has been financed by private equity. The private equity market is an important source of funds for minority media companies. It is a large market, able to meet a variety of financing needs. However, the minority media entrepreneur must realize that this is strictly a profit-oriented investment market. The same investment process and criteria will be applied to minority media proposals as will be applied to non-minority media proposals. This process may present some problems …

Private Property, Economic Efficiency, And Spectrum Policy In The Wake Of The C Block Auction, Brian C. Fritts

Federal Communications Law Journal

In the original spectrum auctions of Personal Communications Services, the FCC designated a portion of the spectrum for woman and minority-owned small businesses (the C block). The Supreme Court’s decision in Adarand v. Pena caused the FCC to redesign the auction with the result that many bidders overvalued this spectrum. Due to this overvaluation, many bidders could not meet their obligations to the FCC. This Note analyzes FCC auction history, the FCC’s response to the original C block auction, how to fix these problems within the given congressional and FCC framework, and argues that the best solution would be to …

Clear Signatures, Obscure Signs, Adam White Scoville

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Telecommunications Access In The Age Of Electronic Commerce: Toward A Third-Generation Universal Service Policy, Milton Mueller

Federal Communications Law Journal

Like many other countries, the United States is in the midst of redefining its universal service policy. Access to telecommunications no longer depends on connecting a copper wire line into the home. Rather, universal service depends on how people will access and use the infrastructure around them. The ability to access communications facilities requires an account relationship between the supplier and the user. Therefore, the account relationship, not the presence of a physical connection to the home, should be the focal point of a universal service policy. With the rise of electronic commerce, access hinges on account verification, credit authorizations, …

Will The Copyright Office Be Obsolete In The Twenty-First Century?, Pamela Samuelson

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Role Of The Copyright Office In The Age Of Information, Eric Schwartz

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Legal Responses To Commercial Transactions Employing Novel Communications Media, John Robinson Thomas

Michigan Law Review

This Note analyzes contemporary business practices and specific characteristics of the new media, and suggests a judicial response consonant with courts' approaches to the earlier technologies of telegraphy and teletype. Part I examines the effect of the Statute of Frauds and rules of authentication upon contracts formed using these media. It concludes that documents produced by telefacsimile and electronic mail systems should be considered ordinary writings. Part II considers the Best Evidence Rule and argues that telefacsimiles and electronic mail transmissions should be considered the best evidence of the contract they memorialize. Part III evaluates doctrines of liability allocation in …

Board Of Trustees Of The State University Of New York V. Fox -The Dawn Of A New Age Of Commercial Speech Regulation Of Tobacco And Alcohol, Mark A. Conrad

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

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 …

The Recent Decline And Fall Of Freedom Of The Press In English Law, Vaughan T. Bevan

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

A television company broadcasts a program criticizing a nationalized corporation and disclosing documents passed to it secretly by one of the corporation's employees. The corporation asks the television company to reveal the identity of the employee. The television company refuses and eight of nine judges ultimately decide that the refusal is unjustified.

That, in essence, is the story of British Steel Corp. v. Granada Television, Ltd. If this situation had arisen in the United States, legal consequences probably would be unremarkable in view of the law's considerable experience with such matters. The novelty posed for English law, however, and the …

Metromedia, Inc. V. City Of San Diego: A Bifurcated Approach To Billboard Regulation And The First Amendment, Eric L. Rosedale

Cardozo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Rate Base Evaluation And Vertical Integration: Shifting Standards In Telephone Regulation, James Mcconnaughey, Manley R. Irwin

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Copyright Law And Its Relevance To Catv: Can An Old Dog Be Taught New Tricks, Alan R. Chase

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.

Securities Regulation-Applicability Of Exchange Act Section 10(B) To Transaction Effected By Means Of Intrastate Telephone Call, Michael A. Warner

Michigan Law Review

Plaintiff alleged that he had been defrauded in a sale of securities to the defendant. Plaintiff attempted to invoke section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1984, which prohibits various fraudulent practices in securities trading. In order to state a cause of action under 10(b), it was necessary for plaintiff to allege that a means or instrumentality of interstate commerce had been used directly or indirectly in connection with the sale. The sale in this case had been effected through telephone conversations over wires located within the city of Philadelphia. However, the wires carrying the calls could be used …

Space Communications And The Law: Adequate International Control After 1963?, Samuel D. Estep, Amalya L. Kearse

Michigan Law Review

During the current year, a space event of legal and technological significance will occur. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company (A.T. & T.), using the launching facilities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), will launch its first satellite for research in the area of commercial communications.† The A.T. & T. sphere will be the first tested by a private, commercial organization specifically for business purposes- to implement a plan eventually to provide increased and improved telecommunications on a grand scale at a lower cost. The satellite will relay television signals from the United States to England, Germany, and …

Corporate Law Department Communications--Privilege And Discovery, Thomas R. Hunt

Vanderbilt Law Review

With the growth in number and size of corporate law departments, there is increased interest in determining the conditions and areas in which their communications' may be called for, and used, in litigation. As business becomes more complex, requiring adherence to legislation and regulation which allows small tolerance between the licit and illicit, or demanding close attention to administrative detail, the role of the lawyer is amplified. Concurrently, corporate counsel is engaged in areas where the distinction between business and legal considerations becomes decreasingly apparent.

Civil Procedure - Jurisdiction - Service Of Process On Foreign Television Corporation, Arnold Henson S.Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Defendant, a West Virginia corporation, operated a television station in Huntington, West Virginia. Its telecasts regularly reached into Boyd County, Kentucky, where part of its customary viewing audience was located. During a twelve-month period in 1954-1955 the corporation derived $71,310.30 in advertising revenue from Kentucky firms, although the contracts for this advertising were made outside Kentucky. In the course of a newscast defendant published an alleged libel against plaintiff, and suit was brought in Boyd County Court. Substituted service of process was made on the Secretary of State in accordance with the Kentucky "doing business" statute, and defendant then removed …

Libel And Slander - Privilege Of "Fair And Accurate Report'' Of Judicial Proceedings-Non-Liability Of Vendor Of Newspaper, Ralph E. Helper

Michigan Law Review

Defendant newspaper published a false account of plaintiff's testimony in a criminal trial. In an action for damages for libel against the newspaper and the local distributor of the papers who had no knowledge that libels were contained therein, held (1) privilege to report judicial proceedings applies only to a correct report, even though the inaccuracy be the result of an unintentional mistake; and ( 2) that the vendor is not liable in absence of knowledge that the newspaper contained libelous matter or knowledge of extraneous facts to put him on guard. Bowerman v. Detroit Free Press, 287 Mich. …

Libel And Slander - Slander Of Title As A Protection Against Unfair Interference With Sale Of Literary Work, James W. Mehaffy

Michigan Law Review

In a slander of title action, the complaint alleged that defendant requested plaintiffs to write a motion picture scenario based on historical events, but after plaintiffs submitted the scenario, defendant rejected it. Thereafter defendant announced its intention, by filing a statement with a voluntary association of motion picture producers, to produce a picture based on the same plot as that contained in plaintiffs' scenario. As a result, plaintiffs were unable to sell their scenario to any other producer. Held, that the complaint was insufficient in the absence of an allegation of special damages. Carrol v. Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. …

Injunctions - Defamation - Injury To Business, Charles E. Nadeau

Michigan Law Review

A complaint praying for an injunction alleged that plaintiff, a retail dealer in automobiles, sold defendant an automobile in good condition; that defendant complained of the steering and demanded a replacement of the parts; that upon inspection, the steering apparatus was found to be in good condition and defendant's request was refused; that thereafter defendant carried signs on the car indicating that it was defective and that plaintiff would do nothing about it; and that he did this, knowing that his claims were false, solely for the purpose of injuring plaintiff and to extort money from him. On overruling a …

The Radio And Interstate Commerce

Michigan Law Review

As each newly discovered scientific principle is taken advantage of in the practical world, new legal problems arise around it. One way or another it is eventually taken care of by the expansion of the legal system to embrace the new situation. The discovery of radio transmission is an example made striking by the extraordinary speed with which it has become a part of the people's daily life and the conflicts of interest that are peculiar to it. The law found itself relieved of many of the embarrassments in dealing with the problem by the fact that Congress early undertook …

Note And Comment, Evans Holbrook, Myron Mclaren, Walter F. Whitman

Michigan Law Review

The Death of President Angell - The death of Dr. James Burrill ANGELL, president-emeritus of the university, has deprived the law school of a sympathetic and helpful friend. Such was the catholicity of Dr. ANGL'S mind and his intellectual interests that probably all departments of the university felt and had good reason to feel that he was in some special sense the interested friend of each.

Note And Comment, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

The Federal Safety Appliance Act as a Regulation of Interstate Commerce; Liability of Christian Science Healer for Negligence and Deceit; Iowa and the Rule in Shelley's Case; Are Conditions Imposed by the Vendor of Chattels Binding on Subsequent Purchasers? Necessity for the Personal Presence of the Accused Upon Arraignment; Unconstitutional Aids to Local Industries; Damages for Mental Suffering Unaccompanied by Physical Injury