Communications Law Commons^™

Changing Horses In Mid-Stream: The Copyright Office's New Rule Makes Broadcasters Pay For "Streaming" Their Signals Over The Internet, Samuel Fifer, Gregory R. Naron

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

With traditional, over-the-air broadcasts, radio stations do not have to start paying license fees to rights holders if they get a bigger transmitter or technology allows their signal to reach more listeners. That much, not even the RIAA will dispute. So why should it matter if stations use the Internet to reach additional listeners? The law shouldn't be interpreted to discourage radio stations from using new Internet technology to do the same thing they're doing now--especially since Congress itself expressly said it did not want to "[hamper] ... new technologies" or "impose new and unreasonable burdens" on broadcasters. And make …

Is The Whole Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts? The Applicability Of The Fair Use Doctrine To The New Breed Of Instant Messaging Software, Haydn J. Richards Jr.

Richmond Journal of Law & Technology

Imagine: you are preparing your fifteen-year high school reunion. When you were in high school, two rival bands played at dances. Everyone at school knew the bands and most students enjoyed the music. Like most music groups, neither band obtained a recording contract with a record label. You are not aware that during a garage practice session, the bands' members recorded some of their songs. Of these songs, only a few scratchy recordings remain. You decide that you are going to search the Internet to see whether you can find any copies of the songs that would enthuse and delight …

The Internet In Light Of Traditional Public And Private International Law Principles And Rules Applied In Canada, Jean-Gabriel Castel

Articles & Book Chapters

In general, the jurisdiction of a state to prescribe, to adjudicate, and to enforce' is related to physical location. Yet, physical location is foreign to the Internet, which can be defined as the electronic medium of worldwide computer networks within which online communication takes place. The absence of physical location calls into question the applicability of the traditional public and private international law principles and rules that are based primarily on territoriality, in order to delineate the jurisdiction of states and their courts over the Internet and its users.

Federal Common Law, Cooperative Federalism, And The Enforcement Of The Telecom Act, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

Congress increasingly has enacted cooperative federalism programs to achieve complex regulatory policy objectives. Such programs combine the authority of federal regulators, state regulators, and federal courts in creative and often pathmarking ways, but the failure of these actors to appreciate fully their respective roles threatens to undermine cooperative federalism's effectiveness. In this Article, Professor Philip Weiser develops a coherent vision of how federal courts should enforce cooperative federalism regulatory programs. In particular, he relates the rise and purpose of cooperative federalism to the federal courts' increased reluctance to make federal common law under the Erie doctrine and their greater deference …

Open Access And The First Amendment: A Critique Of Comcast Cablevision Of Broward County, Inc. V. Broward County, David Wolitz

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

To what extent does the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment bar the adoption of “open access” regulations? Open access (or “net neutrality”) refers to a policy that would require broadband Internet providers, such as cable and phone companies, to allow competitive Internet Service Providers (ISPs) onto their broadband lines at nondiscriminatory rates. A federal district court in Florida recently held Broward County’s open access ordinance unconstitutional on the grounds that it would force speech – in the form of Internet content – on to the local cable company. If the district court’s analysis is correct, then open access …

Reconsidering The Federal Journalist's Privilege For Non-Confidential Information: Gonzales V. Nbc, Anthony L. Fargo

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Vertical Integration And Self-Dealing In The Television Industry: Should Profit Participants Be Owed A Fiduciary Duty?, Marc Simon

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Digital Performance Royalties: Should Radio Pay?, Bruce H. Phillips, Carl R. Moore

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

We must acknowledge that some questions remain unanswered. Have we entered an era in which record labels, recording artists, record producers, and musicians will finally earn royalties for the public performance of their creations? Will the recent Copyright Office action be a watershed development in United States copyright law? Or will the broadcasters and their well-funded and powerful lobbying arm, the NAB, prevail in the end--if not in the courts, then in Congress? The only clear answer is simply this: not if the RIAA, the record labels' own well-funded and powerful lobbying arm, has anything to do with it. It …

Regulation Of Securities And Security Exchanges In The Age Of The Internet, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Invading The "Homes" Of The Homeless: Is Existing Right-Of-Privacy/Publicity Legislation Adequate?, Laurel Kallen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Unnecessary Privacy , Carl Felsenfeld

Faculty Scholarship

An individual's right to privacy in an electronic society has gained international attention as a booming new field. Its birth may roughly be marked to coincide with the birth of the Internet. The flow of information without limit or boundary has raised concerns with the consumer spokespeople in the Western World that personal information about them may flow as easily as general information about Machu Pichu, Keynesian economics, or Harvard College. The fear is that will cause individuals harm, ranging from personal embarrassment to a loss of civil liberties. Therefore, movements are developing to limit this flow of information. The …

Patterns Of Courtroom Justice, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

Any one film can sustain a myriad of compelling interpretations. A collection of films, however, sharing formal and substantive qualities, reveals a common effect more than a diversity of meanings. This essay traces the shared formal and substantive qualities of a group of films, as I name them 'trial films'. It documents this genre of film by identifying the genre's norms of viewing and identification. It also investigates the peculiar hybrid discourse of the trial film genre that combines both filmic and legal discursive practices to show how trial films cultivate support for the American system of law through its …

Internet Governance, Standard Setting, And Self-Regulation, Philip J. Weiser

Publications

No abstract provided.

What The Future Holds: Policy Choices In A Global Marketplace, Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

This essay's title is a misnomer. No one knows "What the Future Holds" in the global marketplace. We can, however, make some educated guesses about the issues that will assume particular importance in the next year or so. Thus, the essay might be more accurately titled, "What May or May Not Be the Important Issues in Internet Commerce in the Next Year or So'"-less catchy, admittedly, but closer to the truth.

Bankruptcy Law V. Privacy Rights: Which Holds The Trump Card?, Walter W. Miller Jr., Maureen A. O'Rourke

Faculty Scholarship

The Internet's emergence as a retail marketplace has both posed new issues and cast old problems in a new light. As technology, particularly software, has advanced over time, traditional bricks and mortar firms have acquired the capability of tracking and analyzing all sorts of information about their customers, including purchasing patterns and demographic information. For years, firms have been licensing and selling such customer data both in and out of bankruptcy without much fear of legal limitations. In particular, the law has generally not adopted privacy rules that would present a barrier to commerce in personal information.

Regulasi Sosial Dalam Akta Komunikasi Dan Multimedia Dan Kesannya Kepada Masyarakat Malaysia, Syed Agil Alsagoff

Student Works (2000-2009)

Malaysia telah mengorak langkah dengan memperkenalkan kumpulan undang-undang siber bagi merancang dan melengkapi pembangunan bidang teknologi di negara ini. Salah satu daripada undang-undang siber yang pertama digubal di dunia dan dipelopori oleh Malaysia ialah Akta Komunikasi dan Multimedia (Akta 588). Undang-undang ini memperkenalkan suatu bentuk percantuman media yang merangkumi bidang penyiaran, telekomunikasi dan multimedia di negara ini. Kajian khusus mengenai pelaksanaan akta ini adalah bertujuan untuk mendapatkan gambaran mengenai peruntukan Regulasi Sosial di dalam akta tersebut dan kesannya kepada masyarakat di negara ini. Oleh yang demikian, kajian bersifat deskriptif ini memberi penekanan terhadap latar belakang akta, peruntukan peraturan di dalam …

Berne Without Borders: Geographic Indiscretion And Digital Communications, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

This lecture examines the role of borders in the Berne Convention at the time of the treaty's first passage in 1886, and today. The later 19th century was an era of increasing commerce and communication among countries whose domestic production and reproduction of works of authorship had vastly increased, thanks in part to new technologies, such as photography, lithography, and high-speed printing. But at that time, the frontiers between nations often frustrated authors' hopes for control over, or at least compensation for, the international exploitation of their works. Authors' rights ceased at their national boundaries; the world beyond foreboded not …

Which Public, Whose Interest? The Fcc, The Public Interest, And Low-Power Radio

San Diego Law Review

Faced with legal challenges8 and, in 1998 alone, over 13,000 inquiries from people and groups interested in starting low-power stations, the government relented, and in January 2000, completed a process creating a new low-power FM (LPFM) service.9 In the space of two years, the FCC had gone from raiding and shutting down microradio stations to inviting applications for low-power broadcast licenses. Such a dramatic shift in policy could only come about through a reinterpretation of the public interest standard. Part III of this Comment continues by analyzing

the concept of the public interest that underlies the new LPFM service and …

The Art Of Writing Good Regulations, Harold W. Furchtgott-Roth

Federal Communications Law Journal

In this introduction to the three pieces that follow, Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth proposes his view that the regulation-drafting process relies more on art than science. The Commissioner sets out a four-category sliding scale to evaluate regulations, and lists the most frequently noted problems with FCC-promulgated rules.

The Fcc’S Implementation Of The 1996 Act: Agency Litigation Strategies And Delay, Rebecca Beynon

Federal Communications Law Journal

Since it began promulgating rules to implement the local competition provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC has been under attack in the courts. The road has been a rough one, and the Commission has lost on a good many issues. The Commission has regularly accused its opponents in these legal battles-chiefly the incumbent local exchange carriers-of using litigation to impede the implementation of the 1996 Act’s local competition provisions. As discussed in this Article, if litigation has in fact slowed the introduction of competition in the local exchange markets, the Commission itself must share some of the …

The Fcc’S Financial Qualification Requirements: Economic Evaluation Of A Barrier To Entry For Minority Broadcasters, Yale M. Braunstein

Federal Communications Law Journal

When analyzing issues surrounding minority ownership of media, scholars have often noted that policy discussions in the area suffer from the linked problems of inadequate data and a lack of tools with which to analyze the data that do exist and might be collected. In Issue Three of Volume 51, several authors made this particular observation. To address this problem, This Article shows how one may use economic analysis and a financial model of a "typical" radio broadcaster to quantify the effects of specific policies. Specifically, the Article focuses on barriers to entry imposed by the FCC’s financial qualification requirements …

The Rights Of Common Carriers And The Decision Whether To Be A Common Carrier Or A Non-Regulated Communications Provider, James H. Lister

Federal Communications Law Journal

The decision whether to be a regulated common carrier or a non-regulated communications provider carries with it numerous benefits and burdens that must be weighed. Although one may automatically assume that non-regulation is preferable, that may not always be the case. This Article directly addresses the decision of whether to be a lightly-regulated non-dominant common carrier or a non-regulated private carrier. The Article argues that certain statutory and regulatory rights enjoyed by common carriers are more important than the minimal regulatory burdens associated with non-dominant common carrier regulation.

Universal Service High-Cost Subsidy Reform: Hindering Cable-Telephony And Other Technological Advancements In Rural And Insular Regions, Emily L. Dawson

Federal Communications Law Journal

Universal service is a public policy initiative designed to ensure that all United States citizens receive widespread access to affordable telecommunications services. Customers in high-cost service regions such as rural and insular areas are typically excluded from the latest telecommunications technology. Most large carriers serving these regions prefer to implement technological updates in urban areas where profit margins are higher while allowing the rural infrastructure to deteriorate. The Federal Universal Service Fund currently offers subsidies to telecommunications providers serving high-cost regions, but the FCC has announced efforts to reform the subsidy allocation system that could potentially impede technological advancement in …

Communications Media And The First Amendment: A Viewpoint-Neutral Fcc Is Not Too Much To Ask For, Helgi Walker

Federal Communications Law Journal

In the "new economy" driven by the telecommunications industry, the FCC is a busy agency. Given the myriad legal issues faced daily by agency decisionmakers and the lack of perfect clarity in major communications legislation, a few legal missteps here and there by the FCC might be expected. In one area, however, the public can and should demand a first-rate agency record: regulation of communications media without regard to the viewpoint expressed via that media, as the First Amendment requires. This Article offers two case studies in which the FCC arguably took viewpoint-discriminatory actions with regard to regulated broadcasters, and …

The Fcc And Section 312(A)(7) Of The Communications Act Of 1934: The Development Of The “Unreasonable Access” Clause, Philip J. Gutwein Ii

Federal Communications Law Journal

Section 312(a)(7) of the Communications Act of 1934 requires that broadcast stations provide legally qualified candidates for federal elective office with reasonable access to advertising time on behalf of their candidacies. The FCC has long struggled with defining "reasonable access." On September 7, 1999, the FCC issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order in which it ruled that broadcast stations may not refuse a request for political advertising time solely because the station does not sell or program such lengths of time. This ruling came in response to a petition for reconsideration of an October 3, 1994 Declaratory Ruling, filed by …

Too Much Power, Too Little Restraint: How The Fcc Expands Its Reach Through Unenforceable And Unwieldy “Voluntary” Agreements, Bryan N. Tramont

Federal Communications Law Journal

The character of a regulatory agency is most severely tested at the zenith of its power. When the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC" or "Commission") breaks free of the limitations imposed by the law, the Commission’s leadership sets its own course. It is at these times, when legal oversight is at a minimum, that it becomes most important for the agency to "pay more attention to justice." Unfortunately, as outlined in this Article, the FCC has often failed this test of institutional character. In at least three contexts, the Commission has proven to be something less than a benevolent master. In …

Chasing Shadows: The Human Face Behind The Cyber Threat, Jim Chirsty

Federal Communications Law Journal

Book Review: Tangled Web: Tales of Digital Crime From the Shadows of Cyberspace, Richard Power, Que, 2000, 450 pages.

Richard Power’s Tangled Web: Tales of Digital Crime from the Shadows of Cyberspace presents a comprehensive account of computer crime. The book unveils and explores in meticulous detail the nature and scope, and—more importantly—the tremendous potential that common criminals, terrorists, and nation-states now have at their fingertips. This Review describes Tangled Web as a must-read for all cyber cops, prosecutors, and information technology heads and policy-makers.

Masthead Vol.53 No.1 (2000)

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Robyn M. Holtzman

Federal Communications Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Increasing Telephone Penetration Rates And Promoting Economic Development On Tribal Lands: A Proposal To Solve The Tribal And State Jurisdictional Problems, Jennifer L. King

Federal Communications Law Journal

Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress instructed the FCC to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable telecommunications services. Consistent with that mandate, the FCC implemented a series of public hearings to discuss with tribes the issues they face concerning low telephone penetration rates. The FCC recommended investigation of universal service in unserved and underserved areas because telephone penetration rates among low-income consumers on tribal lands lagged behind rates in the rest of the country. From these hearings, the FCC proposed a jurisdictional framework to determine which eligible carriers would be under tribal, state, or federal jurisdiction. This …