COMMUNICATIONS LAW

COMM 407

COURTS and PUBLIC POLICY

There is rarely an important policy that would not be affected by the courts

From trains, NFL stadiums, and abortion to libel, profanity, and net neutrality…

Federal Regulations on 'Net Neutrality' Are Voided, Clearing Way for New Fees

• Washington 01/14/2014. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit struck down federal rules requiring broadband providers to treat all Internet traffic equally.

• Adopted in 2010, the Federal Communications Commission rules said that companies like Verizon Communications Inc. had to treat all similar content on their networks equally, whether it was a YouTube video or a home video posted on a personal website.

Communications Law and Free Speech

• The best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market (Oliver Wendell Holmes, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice from 1902 to 1932)

• Freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth (Louis Brandeis, the U.S. Supreme Court Justice from 1916 to 1939)

Communications Law and Free Speech

• Freedom of speech is indispensable to communication

• But freedom of speech is not absolute

• The problem: our right to freedom of speech often clashes with other rights: protection of reputation, public safety, privacy, fair trial, etc…

• The key question: How to balance our rights?