Category: Mass Communication Law

Mozilla leader worries about Internet limits

Here is another great example of what I have called the application of mass communication to the law to the public. I see Baker arguing that laws governing how service providers structure internet access — especially rules regulating what users can do with that access.

Mitchell Baker said she worried about “the increase in laws that make it difficult to run an open network,” especially rules about content.

“You suddenly become liable for anything that gets downloaded, whether it’s legal or not,” she said. “If you said to a municipality, if you build a road, you have to guarantee nothing illegal happens on it – that’s what’s happening on the Internet now. So that’s the kind of regulatory disruption that’s going to have some long-term consequences.”

Edit: In reading it again, I’ll revise my original statement. Baker’s intent wasn’t exactly to address the application of media law to the public. Yet, his analogy might get there by extension. If you’re not regulating the road builders, you must be policing users.

via Mozilla leader worries about Internet limits – washingtonpost.com.

Password protected course videos – fair use?

A recent dispute between the Association for Information and Media Equipment and UCLA highlights the tenuous nature of online copyright in education. The article linked below summarizes:

Copyright law does include exemptions for professors who wish to use audiovisual media “in the course of face-to-face teaching activities of a nonprofit educational institution, in a classroom or similar place devoted to instruction” — so long as the professor is not showing media that he or she knows has been made illegally. The university said streaming the video on a password-protected Web site, where only students who are registered members of the class can access it, satisfies these criteria.

But the trade group is arguing that a password-protected space on the Web is not a classroom. “The face-to-face teaching exemption allows a video to be played in class, not streamed to the classroom from a remote location,” Dohra said in an e-mail. “As to the fair use claim, when videos are streamed to students outside the classroom, password protection may limit access to some degree. However, requiring a password doesn’t make an infringement fair use.”

It’s my understanding that most of us who work in higher-ed technology support believe password protecting copyrighted materials to ensure that only students enrolled in a course brings them into compliance with the TEACH Act. This could be a signal of a big departure from that understanding.

via News: Hitting Pause on Class Videos – Inside Higher Ed.

Color of Internet Neutrality

An FCC commissioner has challenged minority groups to think differently about how a non-neutral Internet might impact their communication strategies.

“The reality is that minority content is almost impossible to get distributed through traditional channels,” Clyburn noted. But with an initial investment of $526, Moore put his video network online. “Had the costs of access been much greater, however—say if he had to buy his way into priority status on one or more networks—Rowdy Orbit may never have seen the light of day,” Clyburn added.

Then she lobbed this concern into the crowd. “To my surprise, most of the filings submitted and public statements issued by some of the leading groups representing people of color on this matter have been silent on this make-or-break issue,” Clyburn confided. “There has been almost no discussion of how important—how essential—it is for traditionally underrepresented groups to maintain the low barriers to entry that our current open Internet provides.”

I think this point of network access costs for less well-to-do media outlets (and individuals) has been occasionally lost in the fray.  I’m particularly glad to see it come up in this exact context.

Also of interest, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication is formally supporting Net Neutrality. As a member, I’m glad to see them going out on a limb like this.

Citizens United vs FEC

Important media law decision out today… I’m looking forward to reading this and hopefully posting a few comments. If anyone else is experiencing a broken link on the SCOTUS website, try Scribd: