At 4:02 PM -0800 1/21/98, Declan McCullagh wrote:
A note from an acquaintance formerly at the FCC. --Declan
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Having spedt my years at the FCC doing pre-repeal Fairness Doctrine and Sec. 315 equal time matters, I think [deleted-dm]'s concerns, tho' justified politically [because most adminsitrations will leave no good technology unhobbled] are without substantial legal basis.
The hook for the Fairness Doctrine obligation imposed on broadcasters as a corollary to their statutory 'public interest' obligations was as a licensee of scarce broadcast spectrum--a discrete frequency awarded on a putatively compettive basis.
Hey, this is what _I_ said.
Those key elements[scarcity/license/obligation] are--for now--lacking in the on-line environment. And while no doubt this or another
Yep, this was what I was saying.
Administration, or wiley Congressional staffer could gin up a plausable nexus between the web and interstate commerce, sufficiient to sustain a new public interest obligation, I think we're two or three generations of bandwith scarcity away from that becoming a compelling element of a cyber-resource allocation scheme.
"Regulation of commerce" (which was, let us not forget, *interstate* commerce, despite the recent extension into defining cloning as commerce, growing peanuts as commerce, and painting pictures as commerce, etc.) is a fundamentally different issue than allocation of scarce bandwidth. Though Declan's source may be right that the burrowcrats will try to find a reason to stick their fingers into the Net to regulate it (meaning, rent-seeking), it won't be via the FCC. That will not fly. I doubt that even President Gore will have the time this coming summer to push for such foolish legislation. --Tim May The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^2,976,221 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."