This revised casebook-plus-commentary offers a basic introduction to the traditional regulation of telephone companies as well as the new lines of businesses they have entered. Drawing on historical and contemporary court decisions as well as on FCC and legislative materials, Brenner documents and evaluates the past twenty years of regulation of the telecommunications industry. In particular, he traces the major regulatory changes from the time of AT&T's single-firm dominance to the increasingly competitive marketplace of today. The law and literature necessary to understand the development and trends in telecommunications are voluminous and, up until now, have been difficult to locate in one place. This book presents the critical concepts and shifts in communications policy coherently and concisely. In this revised and expanded edition, Brenner provides excerpts and comments upon the key decisions in the field, ordering them in a readily accessible manner. He assumes no specialized background in technology, law, or economics. Brenner provides an ideal introduction to this increasingly important field for professionals as well as for scholars and students interested in communications and communications policy.

This revised casebook-plus-commentary offers a basic introduction to the traditional regulation of telephone companies as well as the new lines of businesses they have entered. Drawing on historical and contemporary court decisions as well as on FCC and legislative materials, Brenner documents and evaluates the past twenty years of regulation of the telecommunications industry. In particular, he traces the major regulatory changes from the time of AT&T's single-firm dominance to the increasingly competitive marketplace of today. The law and literature necessary to understand the development and trends in telecommunications are voluminous and, up until now, have been difficult to locate in one place. This book presents the critical concepts and shifts in communications policy coherently and concisely. In this revised and expanded edition, Brenner provides excerpts and comments upon the key decisions in the field, ordering them in a readily accessible manner. He assumes no specialized background in technology, law, or economics. Brenner provides an ideal introduction to this increasingly important field for professionals as well as for scholars and students interested in communications and communications policy.

As the Supreme Court has recognized, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have become important venues for users to exercise free speech rights protected under the First Amendment. Commentators and legislators, however, have questioned whether these social media platforms are living up to their reputation as digital public forums. Some have expressed concern that these sites are not doing enough to counter violent or false speech. At the same time, many argue that the platforms are unfairly banning and restricting access to potentially valuable speech. Currently, federal law does not offer much recourse for social media users who seek to challenge a social media provider's decision about whether and how to present a user's content. Lawsuits predicated on these sites' decisions to host or remove content have been largely unsuccessful, facing at least two significant barriers under existing federal law. First, while individuals have sometimes alleged that these companies violated their free speech rights by discriminating against users' content, courts have held that the First Amendment, which provides protection against state action, is not implicated by the actions of these private companies. Second, courts have concluded that many non-constitutional claims are barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230, which provides immunity to providers of interactive computer services, including social media providers, both for certain decisions to host content created by others and for actions taken "voluntarily" and "in good faith" to restrict access to "objectionable" material. Some have argued that Congress should step in to regulate social media sites. Government action regulating internet content would constitute state action that may implicate the First Amendment. In particular, social media providers may argue that government regulations impermissibly infringe on the providers' own constitutional free speech rights. Legal commentators have argued that when social media platforms decide whether and how to post users' content, these publication decisions are themselves protected under the First Amendment. There are few court decisions evaluating whether a social media site, by virtue of publishing, organizing, or even editing protected speech, is itself exercising free speech rights. Consequently, commentators have largely analyzed the question of whether the First Amendment protects a social media site's publication decisions by analogy to other types of First Amendment cases. There are at least three possible frameworks for analyzing governmental restrictions on social media sites' ability to moderate user content. Which of these three frameworks applies will depend largely on the particular action being regulated. Under existing law, social media platforms may be more likely to receive First Amendment protection when they exercise more editorial discretion in presenting user-generated content, rather than if they neutrally transmit all such content. In addition, certain types of speech receive less protection under the First Amendment. Courts may be more likely to uphold regulations targeting certain disfavored categories of speech such as obscenity or speech inciting violence. Finally, if a law targets a social media site's conduct rather than speech, it may not trigger the protections of the First Amendment at all.

How can we preserve free speech in an electronic age? In a masterly synthesis of history, law, and technology, Ithiel de Sola Pool analyzes the confrontation between the regulators of the new communications technology and the First Amendment.

A thoroughly updated, comprehensive, and accessible guide to U.S. telecommunications law and policy, covering recent developments including mobile broadband issues, spectrum policy, and net neutrality. In Digital Crossroads, two experts on telecommunications policy offer a comprehensive and accessible analysis of the regulation of competition in the U.S. telecommunications industry. The first edition of Digital Crossroads (MIT Press, 2005) became an essential and uniquely readable guide for policymakers, lawyers, scholars, and students in a fast-moving and complex policy field. In this second edition, the authors have revised every section of every chapter to reflect the evolution in industry structure, technology, and regulatory strategy since 2005. The book features entirely new discussions of such topics as the explosive development of the mobile broadband ecosystem; incentive auctions and other recent spectrum policy initiatives; the FCC's net neutrality rules; the National Broadband Plan; the declining relevance of the traditional public switched telephone network; and the policy response to online video services and their potential to transform the way Americans watch television. Like its predecessor, this new edition of Digital Crossroads not only helps nonspecialists climb this field's formidable learning curve, but also makes substantive contributions to ongoing policy debates.

Providing a comprehensive overview of the current European regulatory framework on telecommunications, this book analyses the 2016 proposal for a European Electronic Communications Code (EECC). The work takes as its basis the 2009 Regulatory Framework on electronic communications and analyses each of its five main directives, comparing them with the changes proposed in the EECC. Key chapters focus on issues surrounding choosing the right regulatory model in order to secure effective investment in next-generation networks and ensure their successful deployment.

Huber (Manhattan Institute for Policy Research) recounts the history of telecommunications and its regulation over the last century, arguing that the FCC should have been abolished years ago because it has protected monopolies, over priced services, curtailed free speech, and undermined privacy. He proposes that sensible telecommunications policies evolve through common law and not through government imposition of inflexible regulatory mandates. For general readers. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Now with a new introduction for the Tor Essentials line, A Fire Upon the Deep is sure to bring a new generation of SF fans to Vinge's award-winning works. A Hugo Award-winning Novel! “Vinge is one of the best visionary writers of SF today.”-David Brin Thousands of years in the future, humanity is no longer alone in a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures, and technology, can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence. Fleeing this galactic threat, Ravna crash lands on a strange world with a ship-hold full of cryogenically frozen children, the only survivors from a destroyed space-lab. They are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. Tor books by Vernor Vinge Zones of Thought Series A Fire Upon The Deep A Deepness In The Sky The Children of The Sky Realtime/Bobble Series The Peace War Marooned in Realtime Other Novels The Witling Tatja Grimm's World Rainbows End Collections Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge True Names At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.