01 27 11 telecom law

Telecommunications Law Overview
January 27, 2011 – Professor Jack Lerner
Guest lecturer: Lisa Borodkin

Background - Radio
Ship to Ship Radiotelegraphy (37 Stat. 302 1912)
Radio Act of 1928

Communications Act of 1934
Created FCC
5 Commissioners
Appointed by the President
One chief

Expansion to Television
The FTC Act was held to cover television in the 1950s
Broadcast
Cable
Satellite
IPTV
“known or unknown, hereafter devised”

Title III Broadcast regulation
To grant licenses to promote “public convenience, interest or necessity.” 47 U.S.C. § 307(2), 309(a)
Prescribe the nature of service
Assign Frequencies
Determine location of stations
Prescribe qualifications of station operators
No License can be granted to a foreign citizen – (310(a),(b))

Red Lion Broadcasting Co. V. FCC, 395 U.S. 367 (1969)
First Amendment rights
“personal attack” rule
1 week to respond
Rationale was dominance of broadcast media and ability to drown out other voices

Common Carrier/Enhanced Services Distinction
Basic Services – “Plain Old Fashioned Telephone” regulated tariffs
Anything else, circa 1980 – “Enhanced” not regulated
To be enhanced, can merely be subscriber interaction with stored information – e.g. 976 billing service for adult telephone service
Enhanced services were deregulated and approved by the 11th Circuit – 1982
But the 9th Circuit found preemption invalid - 1990

MCI v. AT&T, 512 U.S. 218 (1994)
Found that the FCC could not use discretion to tailor the Act and apply it to non-dominant exchange carriers like MCI
One a service was found to have common carrier status, the full regulation of the Act applied, including tariff regulation

Rationale of the 1996 Act
Reduce barriers to entry, deregulate and promote competition
Added new sections 251 to 261 to Title II
Imposed duties on Incumbent Local Exchange Carriers (“ILEC”)
Duty to interconnect
Duty to resell on nondiscriminatory basis
Duty to share networks

Title II of the 1996 Act
8 year limit on broadcast license (shortened from 15) Section 203
Allows for reconsideration of incumbent without considering competing applications (Sec. 204)
Lapse if broadcaster fails to transmit for 1 year

Unbundling necessary network elements requirement
Network elements are the physical wire loop from the telephone exchange to the customer’s premises
Think about competition for long distance services

FCC’s Power - to Revoke License
False statements
Failed to operate within license
Failed to provide access to political candidates
Used license to distribute controlled substance

Satellite – Section 205
Jurisdiction over direct-to-home satellite
Criminalizes interception and decryption of direct to home satellite broadcast

V-Chip technology -1988
Requires tvs greater than 13” to have V-chip technology to allow parents to block out violent, sexual or other programming

Trends – Deregulation because scarcity less of an issue
Light regulation of IP-based services
Packet-switching technology replacing circuit switched
Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844 (1997)
Refused to apply Red Lion to the Internet
Because it was not characterized by scarcity
Struck down part of the Communications Decency Act as unconstitutional (Section 230)

Network self-governance
ICAAN – Network solutions
Dispute resolution over domain names
TLD Registrars
Enforcement Issues
Conflict of laws - .ly
COICA – U.S. Customs

Private Rights of Action
Violation of 47 U.S.C. Section 605
Violation of 47 U.S.C. Section 553

IPTV Issues
Google TV
Apple TV
Content Providers under no obligation to provide content
Hulu
Fox withholding content from IPTV

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01 27 11 telecom law

by Lisa Borodkin on Jan 27, 2011

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01 27 11 telecom law — Presentation Transcript