IP: The Role of the Federal Communications Commission in the Digital Era

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Should be worthwhile. I was asked  to be a panelist but a prior commitment
took precedence. 

Dave



CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

The Role of the Federal Communications Commission in the Digital Era
A Panel Discussion at Duke Law School
Room 3043
2:00-5:00 PM Monday March 25, 2002

http://www.law.duke.edu/fccfuture/

Funded by the Duke Fellowship in Intellectual Property and the Public
Domain, with the support of the Center for the Public Domain and the
Ford Foundation. 

PANEL DISCUSSION OVERVIEW

The FCC was created about 70 years ago largely to regulate radio and
telephones and to ensure its licensees served the "public interest,
convenience and necessity."  The Commission has recently noted that the
convergence of formerly distinct services into digital platforms created
the potential for "intermodal" competition, like that between trucks,
trains, and planes in transportation."  Some say this competition is not
occurring because the FCC is organized around, and saddled with, legacy
regulatory models that treat existing networks based on the single
application they previously delivered.  Others contend that it is not
occurring because the FCC has ignored a Congressional mandate appearing
in the 1996 Telecommunications Act to "deregulate" and instead has
continued to rely on an overextended public interest authority to delay
competition thereby frustrating innovation and the efficient deployment
of capital and allocation of company resources. Others would go farther
and propose abolishing the FCC altogether as an anachronism from the New
Deal era when government intervention was preferred over market
solutions.  As media companies get larger, telephone, wireless,
satellite and cable companies compete to deliver the same services and
products, and most intellectual property becomes just another bitstream,
it is time to ask: what should the FCC look like in the future and what
should its mission be in the digital era?

The panel will explore different approaches to the role of the FCC and
selection of priorities in an era of dramatic technological and
political change.  The panelists include economists, scientists, and law
professors, including a former FCC Senior Legal Advisor and FCC Chief
Economist. 

 
SCHEDULE

March 25, 2002
2 p.m.
Room 3043
Panel Discussion: The Role of the Federal Communications Agency in the
Digital Era 

2:00 p.m.
Introduction of Panelists:

    James Boyle, Duke Law School

2:20 p.m.
Panel Discussion

William J. Friedman, Duke Law School
Yochai Benkler, New York University Law School
Michael Katz, U.S. Department of Justice
Stuart Benjamin, University of Texas


Moderator: Wade Hargrove, Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard
LLP of Raleigh, N.C

4:00 p.m.
Discussion and Q & A

5:30    Reception 

Burdman Lounge


PARTICIPANTS 

Stuart Benjamin
Yochai Benkler
James Boyle
William J. Friedman
Wade Hargrove
Michael Katz





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