Ffice of Telecommunications (Doc);, Washington D.C
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS: DYNAMICS of REGULATION of a RAPIDLY EXPANDING SERVICE Asimr H
INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATIONS: DYNAMICS OF REGULATION OF A RAPIDLY EXPANDING SERVICE AsImR H. ENDE* I A PROFILE OF THE REGULATORY ISSION The Communications Act of 1934, as amended' (the Communications Act), and the Communicatons Satellite Act of 19622 (the Satellite Act) provide for pervasive and all-encompassing federal regulation of international telecommunications. The basic purposes to be achieved by such regulation are declared to be "to make avail- able, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communications service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, ...." This broad and general statement of purposes is supplemented by the Declaration of Policy and Purposes in the Satellite Act. In that act, Congress declared it to be the policy of the United States to establish,-in conjunction and cooperation with other countries and as expeditiously as practicable, a commercial communications satellite system which, as part of an improved global communications network, would be responsive to public needs and national objectives, would serve the communications needs of this country and other countries, and would contribute to world peace and understanding In effectuating the above program, care and attention are to be directed toward providing services to economically less developed countries and areas as well as more highly developed ones, toward efficient and economical use of the frequency spectrum, and toward reflecting the benefits of the new technology in both the quality of the services provided and the charges for such services.4 United States participation in the global system is to be in the form of a private corporation subject to appropriate governmental regulation.5 All authorized users are to have nondiscriminatory access to the satellite system. -
Recognizing Legal Differences in Computer Bulletin Board Functions Eric Goldman Santa Clara University School of Law, [email protected]
Santa Clara Law Santa Clara Law Digital Commons Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 1-1-1993 Cyberspace, the Free Market and the Free Marketplace of Ideas: Recognizing Legal Differences in Computer Bulletin Board Functions Eric Goldman Santa Clara University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.scu.edu/facpubs Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation 16 Hastings Comm. & Ent. L.J. 87 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Santa Clara Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Cyberspace, the Free Market and the Free Marketplace of Ideas: Recognizing Legal Differences in Computer Bulletin Board Functions by ERIC SCHLACHTER* Table of Contents I. Difficult Issues Resulting from Changing Technologies.. 89 A. The Emergence of BBSs as a Communication M edium ............................................. 91 B. The Need for a Law of Cyberspace ................. 97 C. The Quest for the Appropriate Legal Analogy Applicable to Sysops ................................ 98 II. Breaking Down Computer Bulletin Board Systems Into Their Key Characteristics ................................ 101 A. Who is the Sysop? ......... 101 B. The Sysop's Control ................................. 106 C. BBS Functions ...................................... 107 1. Message Functions .............................. -
Rethinking the Role of History in Law & Economics: the Case of The
09-008 Rethinking the Role of History in Law & Economics: The Case of the Federal Radio Commission in 1927 David A. Moss Jonathan B. Lackow Copyright © 2008 by David A. Moss and Jonathan B. Lackow Working papers are in draft form. This working paper is distributed for purposes of comment and discussion only. It may not be reproduced without permission of the copyright holder. Copies of working papers are available from the author. Rethinking the Role of History in Law & Economics: The Case of the Federal Radio Commission in 1927 David A. Moss Jonathan B. Lackow July 13, 2008 Abstract In the study of law and economics, there is a danger that historical inferences from theory may infect historical tests of theory. It is imperative, therefore, that historical tests always involve a vigorous search not only for confirming evidence, but for disconfirming evidence as well. We undertake such a search in the context of a single well-known case: the Federal Radio Commission’s (FRC’s) 1927 decision not to expand the broadcast radio band. The standard account of this decision holds that incumbent broadcasters opposed expansion (to avoid increased competition) and succeeded in capturing the FRC. Although successful broadcaster opposition may be taken as confirming evidence for this interpretation, our review of the record reveals even stronger disconfirming evidence. In particular, we find that every major interest group, not just radio broadcasters, publicly opposed expansion of the band in 1927, and that broadcasters themselves were divided at the FRC’s hearings. 1. Introduction What is the role of history in the study of law and economics? Perhaps its most important role in this context is as a test of theory and a source of new hypotheses. -
Sarah Clemens* Journalists Face a Credibility Crisis, Plagued by Chants
FROM FAIRNESS TO FAKE NEWS: HOW REGULATIONS CAN RESTORE PUBLIC TRUST IN THE MEDIA Sarah Clemens* Journalists face a credibility crisis, plagued by chants of fake news and a crowded rat race in the primetime ratings. Critics of the media look at journalists as the problem. Within this domain, legal scholarship has generated a plethora of pieces critiquing media credibility with less attention devoted to how and why public trust of the media has eroded. This Note offers a novel explanation and defense. To do so, it asserts the proposition that deregulating the media contributed to the proliferation of fake news and led to a decline in public trust of the media. To support this claim, this Note first briefly examines the historical underpinnings of the regulations that once made television broadcasters “public trustees” of the news. This Note also touches on the historical role of the Public Broadcasting Act that will serve as the legislative mechanism under which media regulations can be amended. Delving into what transpired as a result of deregulation and prodding the effects of limiting oversight over broadcast, this Note analyzes the current public perception of broadcast news, putting forth the hypothesis that deregulation is correlated to a negative public perception of broadcast news. This Note analyzes the effect of deregulation by exploring recent examples of what has emerged as a result of deregulation, including some of the most significant examples of misinformation in recent years. In so doing, it discusses reporting errors that occurred ahead of the Iraq War, analyzes how conspiracy theories spread in mainstream broadcast, and discusses the effect of partisan reporting on public perception of the media. -
Making Radio Pirates Walk the Plank with Aiding and Abetting Liability
Arrr! Sever Thee Transmitters! Making Radio Pirates Walk the Plank with Aiding and Abetting Liability Max Nacheman * TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................... 299 II. THE INTERTWINED FATE OF BROADCAST REGULATION AND PIRATE RADIO ............................................................................................. 301 A. Origins of Radio Broadcast Regulation in the United States .. 301 B. Pirates of the (Air)waves: The Swell of Unauthorized Broadcasting ............................................................................ 303 C. From Radio Pirates to Cellular Ninjas: The Future of Unauthorized Broadcasting ..................................................... 304 III. UNAUTHORIZED BROADCASTING POSES A UNIQUE ENFORCEMENT CHALLENGE THAT MAY BE ADDRESSED BY ESTABLISHING AUTHORITY TO CRACK DOWN ON AIDERS AND ABETTORS OF PIRATE BROADCASTERS .............................................................................. 305 A. The FCC’s Enforcement Procedure for Unauthorized Broadcasters Is an Inadequate Deterrent to Pirates ............... 306 B. Aiding and Abetting Liability Would Cut the Supply Chain of Essential Resources to Unauthorized Broadcasters ................ 309 1. How the United Kingdom Sank Pirate Radio ................... 310 2. Aiding and Abetting Liability for Securities Violations ... 311 IV. THREE WAYS TO CRACK DOWN ON AIDERS AND ABETTORS OF UNAUTHORIZED BROADCASTING: STATUTE, RULEMAKING, AND EXISTING CRIMINAL LAW ............................................................. -
Lessons from FCC Regulation of Radio Broadcasting Thomas W
Michigan Technology Law Review Volume 4 | Issue 1 1998 "Chilling" the Internet? Lessons from FCC Regulation of Radio Broadcasting Thomas W. Hazlett University of California, Davis David W. Sosa University of California, Davis Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mttlr Part of the Communications Law Commons, First Amendment Commons, Internet Law Commons, and the Legislation Commons Recommended Citation Thomas W. Hazlett & aD vid W. Sosa, "Chilling" the Internet? Lessons from FCC Regulation of Radio Broadcasting , 4 Mich. Telecomm. & Tech. L. Rev. 35 (1998). Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mttlr/vol4/iss1/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Michigan Technology Law Review by an authorized editor of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. "CHILLING" THE INTERNET? LESSONS FROM FCC REGULATION OF RADIO BROADCASTING Thomas W. Hazlett and David W. Sosa* Cite As: Thomas W. Hazlett and David W. Sosa, "Chilling" the Internet? Lessonsfrom FCCRegulation of Radio Broadcasting, 4 MICH. TELECOmm. TECH. L. REv. 35 (1998) available at <http:/www.mttlr.org/volfour/hazlett.pdf>. ExEcuTIvE SUMMARY ...................................................................... 35 I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................... 36 II. CONTENT REGULATION IN BROADCASTING ............................... 41 Im. CONTENT REGULATION PRE-"FAIRNEsS" ........................44 IV. RED LION: THE REST OF THE STORY ........................................ 45 V. NIXON'S "CHILL" .................................................................... 47 VI. EXTENDING THE "CHILL" BEYOND WASHINGTON POLITICS ......... 50 VII. THE FCC LIFTS RADIO REGULATION, 1979-87 ........................ 51 VIII. DID THE FAIRNESS DOCTRINE "WARM" OR "CHILI'? ............ -
GAO-02-906 Telecommunications
United States General Accounting Office GAO Report to Congressional Requesters September 2002 TELECOMMUNICATIONS Better Coordination and Enhanced Accountability Needed to Improve Spectrum Management a GAO-02-906 Contents Letter 1 Results in Brief 2 Background 5 Concern Over Concentrating Authority Led to Divided Structure for Spectrum Management 6 Methods for Allocating Spectrum Face Difficulties and Are Not Guided by a Coordinated National Plan 11 Issues Have Emerged Regarding the Adequacy of U.S. Preparations for World Radiocommunication Conferences 19 Federal Officials Said Activities to Encourage Efficient Federal Spectrum Use Are Hindered by Staffing and Resource Problems 25 Conclusions 34 Recommendations for Executive Action 35 Agency Comments 36 Appendixes Appendix I: Major Parts of the Radiofrequency Spectrum and Their Uses 38 Appendix II: Timeline of Spectrum Management 40 Appendix III: Comments from the Federal Communications Commission 67 Appendix IV: Comments from the Department of Commerce 69 Appendix V: Comments from the Department of State 71 Figures Figure 1: Interdepartment Radio Advisory Committee’s Membership 10 Figure 2: Percent of Spectrum Shared by Federal and Nonfederal Users (9 kHz to 3.1 GHz) 12 Figure 3: Spectrum Reallocation Process 13 Figure 4: Relationship of U.S. Participants in Preparing for World Radiocommunication Conferences 21 Figure 5: NTIA Frequency Assignment Process 26 Figure 6: Timeline of Spectrum Management (1895–1925) 41 Figure 7: Timeline of Spectrum Management (1925–1955) 47 Figure 8: Timeline -
The Federal Communications Commission: Current Structure and Its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape
The Federal Communications Commission: Current Structure and Its Role in the Changing Telecommunications Landscape Patricia Moloney Figliola Specialist in Internet and Telecommunications Policy August 1, 2018 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov RL32589 The Federal Communications Commission Summary The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent federal agency with its five members appointed by the President, subject to confirmation by the Senate. It was established by the Communications Act of 1934 (1934 Act) and is charged with regulating interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable. The mission of the FCC is to ensure that the American people have available—at reasonable cost and without discrimination—rapid, efficient, nation- and worldwide communication services, whether by radio, television, wire, satellite, or cable. Although the FCC has restructured over the past few years to better reflect the industry, it is still required to adhere to the statutory requirements of its governing legislation, the Communications Act of 1934. The 1934 Act requires the FCC to regulate the various industry sectors differently. Some policymakers have been critical of the FCC and the manner in which it regulates various sectors of the telecommunications industry—telephone, cable television, radio and television broadcasting, and some aspects of the internet. These policymakers, including some in Congress, have long called for varying degrees and types of reform to the FCC. Most proposals fall into two categories: (1) procedural changes made within the FCC or through congressional action that would affect the agency’s operations or (2) substantive policy changes requiring congressional action that would affect how the agency regulates different services and industry sectors. -
The Electromagnetic Telegraph Alexander J
Santa Clara University Scholar Commons Economics Leavey School of Business 2001 The Regulatory History of a New Technology: The Electromagnetic Telegraph Alexander J. Field Santa Clara University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/econ Part of the Economics Commons, and the Law Commons Recommended Citation Field, Alexander J. 2001. “The Regulatory History of a New Technology: The Electromagnetic Telegraph.” Michigan State University Law Review 2: 245-253. Copyright © 2001 the author. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Leavey School of Business at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Economics by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE REGULATORY HISTORY OF A NEW TECHNOLOGY: ELECTROMAGNETIC TELEGRAPHY* Alexander J. Field" 2001 L. REv. M.S.U.-D.C.L. 245 Attitudes toward economic regulation in the United States have, since colonial times, been influenced by an almost schizophrenic oscillation between dirigiste and laissez-faire ideology. The laissez-faire tradition maintains that within a legal system providing elementary guarantees against force and fraud, business enterprise should be allowed the maximum possible freedom. The dirigiste tradition, on the other hand, recommends government intervention in a variety of situations, including those where the social return may exceed the private rate of return to research and development spending, in cases of natural monopoly, or where a firm has erected barriers to entry that give it effective control over bottlenecks and the ability to extract rents from them. Direct government economic influence on the telegraph industry over its roughly fourteen decade history reflects this schizophrenia. -
Norvin Green and the Telegraph Consolidation Movement
NORVIN GREEN AND THE TELEGRAPH CONSOLIDATION MOVEMENT BY I.•R G. LINDLEYv Barbourville, Kentucky A paper given before The Filson Club, December 4, 1972 "[T]elegraph stock," Norvin Green lamented in 1859, "is the mean- est property in the world." Given its "uncertain ties and dependence upon trickery," owning telegraph stock Green thought was "the next thing to stock in a faro bank.....1 On the surface this pessimistic atti- tude toward telegraph property might appear incongruous given Green's extensive involvement in the telegraph industry from the early 1850s. However, in examining the circumstances of telegraph development in the period from the late 1840s through the middle 1860s, Green's bleak assessment of telegraph stock was, in reality, an accurate analysis of internal difficulties which confronted the telegraph industry in the first two decades of its history. The fears Green expressed epitomized a fundamental conflict within telegraphing as the industry matured---a conflict between forces which encouraged competition and those impelling telegraphers to consolidate their industry. These conflicts remained unresolved until the middle of 1866 when major telegraph companies consolidated under Western Union's leadership to form the nation's first large monopoly. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, however, the potential for renewed com- petition became a reality with the formation of the American Union Telegraph and the Postal Telegraph companies. By the late 1880s tension between a competitive and consolidated industry was resolved by leading telegraphers whose option was for consolidation.2 Norvin Green's career as a telegrapher demonstrates the tension between forces tending to keep the industry a competitive one, and the dynamics of antithetic factors which influenced telegraphers to con- solidate their enterprises. -
DOC-308650A1.Pdf
First Annual Report of the Federal Communications Commission To the Congress of the United States For the Fiscal Year 1935 Herbert L. Pettey, Secretary UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE WASHINGTON: 1936 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. • Price 15 Cents FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, Washington, D.O., January 6, 1936. To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of Amerioa in Oongress assembled: Herewith is submitted the First Annual Report of the Federal Communications Commission covering the fiscal year ended June 30,1935. The Federal Communications Commission was established by an act entitled" Public, No. 416 ", Seventy-third Congress, approved June 19, 1934, for the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio so as to make avail able so far as possible, to all people of the United States, a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication Eervice with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of the national defense, and for the purpose of securing a more effective execution of this policy by centralizing authority heretofore granted by law to several agencies and by granting additional authority with respect to interstate and foreign commerce in wire and radio communication. This act further provided for the transfer to the Communications Commission of all officers and employees of the Federal Radio Com mission (except the members thereof whose offices it abolished) whose services were deemed necessary to the efficient operation of the new Commission. It also provided for the transfer of all records and property formerly under the jurisdiction of the Federal Radio Commission and all records under the jurisdiction of the Interstate Commerce Commission and of the Postmaster General relating to the duties, powers, and functions imposed upon and vested in the Com mission by the Communications Act. -
(Former) HOME LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY BUILDING (Incorporating the Former Postal Telegraph Building), 256-257 and 253 Broadway, Borough of Manhattan
Landmarks Preservation Commission November 12, 1991; Designation List 240 LP-1751 (Former) HOME LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY BUILDING (incorporating the former Postal Telegraph Building), 256-257 and 253 Broadway, Borough of Manhattan. No. 256-257 built 1892-94; Napoleon LeBrun & Sons (Pierre L. LeBrun), architects. No. 253 built 1892-94; George Edward Harding & Gooch, architects. Landmark Site: Borough of Manhattan Tax Map Block 134, Lots 1001 and 1002. On December 12th, 1989, the Landmarks Preservation Commission held a public hearing on the proposed designation as a Landmark of the Home Life Insurance Company Buildings and the proposed designation of the related Landmark Site (Item No. 15). The hearing had been duly advertised in accordance with the provisions of law. Seven witnesses spoke in favor of designation. One witness was opposed to designation. Three letters have been received supporting the designation, including a letter from a representative of the Department of General Services, City of New York, which owns Lot 1001 (the office stories). The owner of Lot 1002 (the retail stores) is not opposed to this designation. DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS Summary The (former) Home Life Insurance Company Building, a significant, early skyscraper richly designed in the neo-Renaissance style by Pierre L. LeBrun of the firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons, was constructed in 1892-94. In 1893 the initial twelve-story Home Life tower design was extended to fifteen stories, an enlargement that, at its completion in 1894, made this building higher than its southern neighbor and almost exact contemporary, the Postal Telegraph Building designed by George Edward Harding & Gooch and built in 1892- 94.