Syracuse Science and Technology Law Reporter
Book Review By: Cristin Cavanaugh
Abstract: This book provides an overview of the policy and legal aspects of wind power in Europe, through the illustration of case studies in Denmark, Germany, Spain, United Kingdom and France.
About the Author: Joseph Szarka’s research and teaching concentrates on political renewal in Western democracies, with a focus on economic and environmental policy making. He also is a reader in European Studies at the University of Bath, UK.
By Brian W. Murray
One of the most well-known laws is one of science—for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When considering recent trends in federal communications regulation, one must wonder whether the same principle is at work.
For several years, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) systematically eliminated longstanding regulatory requirements that otherwise would have forced owners of broadband platforms to give competing service providers nondiscriminatory access to their networks to assure them a means of reaching customers. The general theory was that the proliferation of networks that support broadband-based services placed competitive pressure on network owners, such that they would be pleased voluntarily to provide wholesale access to their non-facilities-based competitors in order to maximize the number of customers on their networks—without any need for a regulator to tell them to do so.
The regulatory pendulum is now swinging the other way. During the last year in particular, the FCC has demonstrated a renewed fondness for using regulation to restrain the conduct of broadband service providers and network owners, this time with a specific focus on enabling consumers to access and use broadband-capable platforms to the greatest extent possible. This trend has manifested itself through the imposition of what can loosely be described as a series of consumer-oriented “access” mandates—rules that, in one way or another, are intended to restrict service providers from binding customers to, or impairing their use of, a particular network.
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Today, the Syracuse Science and Technology Law Reporter, the Communications Law and Policy Society, and the Intellectual Property Law Society invited the College of Law community heard Brian W. Murray present his paper, Out With the Old, In With the New: The FCC and the Paradox of Broadband Access Mandates. The event was held in room 201 of the College of Law from 11:45 a.m. to 12:45 p.m.
Murray is an associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP in Washington, D.C. His practice includes participation in rulemaking and adjudicatory proceedings before the Federal Communications Commission, and counseling on transactions and regulatory compliance.
By Bert Kaufman
In order to compete in a satellite and cable television marketplace, Verizon Internet Services has one new product to the mix of services consumers can use to get hundreds of channels into their homes. In 2005, the telecommunications giant began launching its “Verizon Fiber Optic Service” (FiOS) in select markets throughout the United States. The service, which would allow municipalities to receive pay television and other services, such as high-speed internet and telephone, over its fiber optic, internet service network, marks the entry of Verizon into the highly competitive content-delivery marketplace.
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By Ann M. Alexander
Today, one out of every four Americans searches the World Wide Web for health related information and prescription drug research. However, the number of Americans that purchase their pharmaceuticals over the internet still remains low.
This note discusses the various types of internet pharmacies, the reasons patients utilize these entities, and current regulation of the industry. Allocating responsibility to both the State and Federal governments, the note suggests a solution to the problems posed by current regulation of internet pharmacies.
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By Steven C. Judge
The fast-emerging technology of Voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) has incited a debate over whether it should be regulated and who should be assigned the task. VoIP technology involves a blend of two industries: telephone, which has regularly been the subject of regulation, and the Internet, which has normally been left alone. The concern involved is that however the regulatory scheme is set up, it will have untold, and probably far reaching, impacts on the Internet.
Too much regulation could restrict the developing technology and adversely affect the impact on the Internet, but too little could have the same adverse effect on the telephone. It is important that when determining how to regulate VoIP, that the regulatory bodies, both state and federal, look to the past mistakes made in the regulatory schemes for the telephone.
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