Communications Law Commons^™

Comcast/Nbcu: The Fcc Provides A Roadmap For Vertical Merger Analysis, Jonathan Baker

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The FCC’s analysis of the Comcast-NBCU transaction fills a gap in the contemporary treatment of vertical mergers by providing a roadmap for courts and litigants addressing the possibility of anticompetitive exclusion. The FCC identified the factors any judicial or administrative tribunal would likely consider today in analyzing whether a vertical merger would lead to anticompetitive input or customer foreclosure, and a range of economic methods potentially relevant to applying that template to the facts of a transaction. Notwithstanding the difference between administrative adjudication under a public interest standard and judicial decision-making under the Clayton Act, the legal framework and economic …

Innovation, Entrepreneurship, And The Information Age, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

This Essay makes the case for antitrust enforcement as a critical part of innovation policy and catalyzing entrepreneurship. It begins by explaining how innovation and entrepreneurship are drivers of economic growth and pillars of any effective economic strategy. With respect to antitrust enforcement and competition policy, it highlights the role that antitrust can play in opening up markets and addressing bottleneck monopolies, such as those at issue in the Microsoft and AT&T cases. It also explains that the most nettlesome challenge of such enforcement is devising appropriate and effective remedies, suggesting a few strategies to address that challenge.

He's So Gay ... Not That There's Anything Wrong With That: Using A Community Standard To Homogenize The Measure Of Reputational Damage In Homosexual Defamation Cases, Abigail A. Rury

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note examines the role of the community standard in determining defamation, particularly in cases involving false claims of homosexuality. It argues that the current application of the community standard often lacks clarity and may reflect judicial biases, leading to inconsistent rulings. The note proposes reforms to enhance the accuracy and transparency of defamation analysis by adopting a contemporary community standard, similar to that used in obscenity law, which considers specific geographic and social contexts.

Opinions, Implications, And Confusions, Leonard M. Niehoff

Articles

The law of defamation is haunted by ancient common law principles, such as the distinction between libel per se and libel per quad, that contribute nothing to our current jurisprudence beyond providing opportunities for misunderstanding and perplexity. Unfortunately, more contemporary doctrines have further complicated the field by sowing fresh confusions. This article explores two such doctrines-the principle that a defamation claim cannot rest upon an opinion and the principle that a defamation claim can rest upon unstated implications- and suggests that there are troublesome contradictions both within them and between them. In short, this article respectfully proposes that these two …

Baum Lecture 2010, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

As part of the Baum Lecture Series at the University of Illinois College of Law, Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger delivered a lecture on September 14, 2010, on the essential role of a global free press in providing the information needed to understand the many problematic issues we face as a result of globalization. In this presentation, President Bollinger addressed the challenges of maintaining high-quality institutions of American journalism with an international reporting capacity in the face of rapidly changing market forces. He further discussed America’s interest in seeing the rise of a free and independent press in nations …

Government Speech And Online Forums: First Amendment Limitations On Moderating Public Discourse On Government Websites, David S. Ardia

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Technology: How To Stay Out Of Court, Erin Jozwiak, Heather Thomas, Jackie Pillow, George Taylor Ii

Parameters of Law in Student Affairs and Higher Education (CNS 670)

It is hard to believe that over a century ago business professionals, educators, high school and college students were writing letters with a pen and ink, making telephone calls on a land line phone, and physically making home visits to family and friends. In today’s society, texting has replaced phone calls, picture and video messaging has replaced face to face conversation, emails has replaced letter writing and social networking is changing the face of how electronic communication is viewed along and administered.

Electronic communication has led the way in this new millennium of communication and because technology is changing so …

The Challenge Of Developing Effective Public Policy On The Use Of Social Media By Youth, John Palfrey

Federal Communications Law Journal

Symposium: Essays from Time Warner Cable's Research Program on Digital Communications.

Revisiting The Regulatory Status Of Broadband Internet Access: A Policy Framework For Net Neutrality And An Open Competitive Internet, Lee L. Selwyn, Helen E. Golding

Federal Communications Law Journal

A decade of broadband access deregulation has landed the FCC at a legal deadend. After the D.C. Circuit's Comcast decision, the FCC finds itself unable to enforce its "net neutrality" goals. To reassert its jurisdiction over "net neutrality," the FCC proposes to reclassify broadband Internet access as a Title II "telecommunications service" while continuing to forbear from most other facets of common carrier regulation. The FCC's current dilemma results from an unfortunate combination of unverified predictive judgments associating deregulation with investment; overly optimistic assessments of competition in the consumer broadband market; the abandonment of the "bright line" between transmission and …

Editor's Note, Ann E. O'Connor

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Introduction To Essays On The Future Of Digital Communications, Ferando R. Laguarda

Federal Communications Law Journal

Symposium: The Future of Digital Communications: Essays from Time Warner Cable's Research Program on Digital Communications.

The Challenge Of Increasing Civic Engagement In The Digital Age, Nicol Turner-Lee

Federal Communications Law Journal

Symposium: Essays from Time Warner Cable's Research Program on Digital Communications.

The Future Of Digital Communications Research And Policy, Scott Wallsten

Federal Communications Law Journal

Symposium: Essays from Time Warner Cable's Research Program on Digital Communications.

The Changing Patterns Of Internet Usage, Christopher S. Yoo

Federal Communications Law Journal

Symposium: Essays from Time Warner Cable's Research Program on Digital Communications.

The Challenge Of Increasing Broadband Capacity, Dale N. Hatfield

Federal Communications Law Journal

Symposium: Essays from Time Warner Cable's Research Program on Digital Communications.

Masthead Vol.63 No.1 (2010)

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Deliberative Democracy On The Air: Reinvigorate Localism-Resuscitate Radio's Subversive Past, Akilah N. Folami

Federal Communications Law Journal

There has been considerable scholarship exploring the need to breathe deliberative life back into the localism standard by requiring broadcasters to include more meaningful local news and public affairs programming, pursuant to the public interest obligations imposed on radio licensees. There has been little scholarly attention, if any, however given to broadening understandings of localism to include music and popular cultural expression for the purpose of furthering deliberative discourse in particular, rather than solely for entertainment purposes. This Article focuses on a particular moment in radio and America's cultural history that was rife with struggles over constructions of identity, and …

Pacifica Reconsidered: Implications For The Current Controversy Over Broadcast Indecency, Angela J. Campbell

Federal Communications Law Journal

In 2009, the Supreme Court upheld the FCC's finding in Fox TV Stations v. Federal Communications Commission that the broadcast of "fleeting expletives" violated a federal law prohibiting the broadcast of indecency, but remanded the case for consideration of the broadcast networks' claims that the FCC action violated the First Amendment. On remand, the Second Circuit found that the FCC's prohibition against "fleeting expletives" was unconstitutionally vague. It is widely expected that the Supreme Court will review this decision and that the networks will ask the Court to reconsider its 1978 decision in Pacifica Foundation v. Federal Communications Commission. This …

Combating Cyberbullying: Emphasizing Education Over Criminalization, Jessica P. Meredith

Federal Communications Law Journal

The advent of new technologies such as social media websites like MySpace and Facebook have increased the methods through which bullying takes form and causes harm to children and teenagers. As the public has become more aware of the dangers of this new form of bullying, cyberbullying, legislators have responded by proposing legislation to criminalize this type of behavior with varying degrees of success. This Note explains the problem of cyberbullying and evaluates state and federal legislative efforts to combat the issue through criminalization, then argues that prevention through education will be the most effective solution. Unlike criminalization, educational initiatives …

From One [Expletive] Policy To The Next: The Fcc's Regulation Of "Fleeting Expletives" And The Supreme Court's Response, Brandon J. Almas

Federal Communications Law Journal

After the broadcast of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards, during which the lead singer from U2 uttered an expletive on national television, the FCC revisited its prior policy on the use of expletives on the airwaves and declared, for the first time, that "fleeting expletives" are offensive according to community standards and are therefore finable. In a lawsuit filed in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Fox Television Stations, Inc. along with a number of other broadcasters argued that the FCC's new policy was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act and unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The Second …

Examining The Fcc's Indecency Regulations In Light Of Today's Technology, Elizabeth H. Steele

Federal Communications Law Journal

Indecency regulations promulgated by the FCC used to be effective, but today's technological advances call those regulations into question. With the prevalence of digital video recorders and the availability of television shows on the Internet, children have unprecedented access to material broadcast at all times of day. As a result, the "safe harbor" rationale restricting the broadcast of indecent material no longer makes sense. A move toward deregulation is the most logical step to take, as it would prevent any First Amendment violations and would allow the networks freedom to broadcast material that the public may be interested in without …

Technology Convergence And Federalism: Who Should Decide The Future Of Telecommunications Regulation?, Daniel A. Lyons

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article critically examines the division of regulatory jurisdiction over telecommunications issues between the federal government and the states. Currently, the line between federal and state jurisdiction varies depending on the service at issue. This compartmentalization might have made sense fifteen years ago, but the advent of technology convergence has largely rendered this model obsolete. Yesterday's telephone and cable companies now compete head-to-head to offer consumers the vaunted "triple play" of voice, video, and internet services. But these telecommunications companies are finding it increasingly difficult to fit new operations into arcane, rigid regulatory compartments. Moreover, services that consumers view as …

The Year In Economics At The Fcc: A National Plan For Broadband, Jonathan Baker, Paul De Sa

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

The past year in economics at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has focused on encouraging the adoption and deployment of high capacity Internet access and the associated networks, commonly termed “broadband.” Our article sketches important economic themes in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan to show how the application of basic principles of regulatory economics takes account of rapid technological change. We discuss natural monopoly regulation, externalities and cross-subsidies, network effects and interconnection, the allocation of scarce inputs, protecting and fostering competitive markets, and consumer protection and transparency as they apply to the development of broadband.

The Vulnerability Of Subsea Infrastructure To Underwater Attack: Legal Shortcomings And The Way Forward, Laurence Reza Wrathall

San Diego International Law Journal

This Article explores the vulnerability of submarine pipelines and cables to underwater subterfuge beyond territorial waters, particularly with regards to the emerging threat posed by unmanned vehicles in executing such mal intent. Next, it describes the legal status of this critical infrastructure before identifying shortcomings in legal protection from underwater attack. Finally, potential solutions are offered for the way forward.

The Faces Of Student Cell Phone Regulations And The Implications Of Three Clauses Of The Federal Constitution, Joseph O. Oluwole, William Visotsky

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article examines the constitutionality of school district regulations on student cell phones, focusing on the Due Process Clause, the Free Speech Clause, and the Fourth Amendment. It argues that while schools have the authority to regulate cell phones to maintain an educational environment, such regulations must comply with legal standards to avoid infringing on students' rights. The analysis concludes that schools can enforce cell phone policies but must adhere to constitutional protections, particularly the Tinker test for speech and the T.L.O. test for searches.

Accessing Truth: Marketplaces Of Ideas In The Information Age, Nima Darouian

Cardozo Public Law, Policy & Ethics Journal

The article argues that the Internet comprises numerous distinct virtual marketplaces, each with unique regulatory frameworks and dynamics, which are essential for the dissemination of information and public welfare. Current legal doctrines, such as those in the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA), and the Principles of the Law of Software Contracts (PLSC), are insufficient to protect the public interest in these virtual marketplaces. The article proposes that courts adopt the Reichman-Franklin standard, which requires mass-market contracts and non-negotiable access agreements to be fair, reasonable, and aligned with the public interest in education, science, research, …

Inducement Or Solicitation? Competing Interpretation Of The "Underlying Illegality" Test In The Wake Of Roommates.Com, Jeffrey R. Doty

Washington Journal of Law, Technology & Arts

In Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a Web site operator loses the immunity granted by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act by materially contributing to the alleged illegality of its third-party content. Subsequent case law seems to reflect two different standards for determining when this “underlying illegality” test is satisfied. Most courts have adopted a narrow reading of Roommates.com, denying immunity only when a Web site has explicitly requested illegal content. In NPS LLC v. StubHub, Inc., however, a Massachusetts …

Love Thy Neighbor: The Tampere Convention As Global Legislation, Allison Rahrig

Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies

The Internet, 24-hour news sources, and a host of other telecommunications advances have allowed global citizens to become instantaneously informed. With the privilege of real-time updates and acute awareness of the world's events comes the responsibility of being more than a passive observer. Specifically, this Note focuses on the technological improvements in communication during natural disasters-improvements that can be used to assist and aid the victims of catastrophes. In the aftermath of a natural disaster, the country affected is rarely able to provide for its citizens; tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, and earthquakes can (and often do) cripple an entire nation. This …

Foreword: Advertising And The Law, Mark Bartholomew

Buffalo Law Review

This foreword to a special issue of the Buffalo Law Review provides an overview of seven articles addressing the intersection of advertising and law. The special issue stems from a November 2009 conference held at the University at Buffalo Law School. The foreword examines the particular difficulties in characterizing the relationship between advertisers, consumers, and the law. Advertisers promulgate certain symbolic meanings designed to induce consumption. Sometimes these meanings are contested through legal means yet consumers can only participate in advertising's regulatory apparatus indirectly. This results in a dynamic between advertiser and consumer that is difficult to define yet ubiquitous …

Attention Must Be Paid: Commercial Speech, User-Generated Ads, And The Challenge Of Regulation, Rebecca Tushnet

Buffalo Law Review

No abstract provided.