Harold Furchtgott-Roth

In this timely book, Harold Furchtgott-Roth explores the evolution of communications law in response to new technologies. By scrutinizing underlying statutory language, he provides a comprehensive assessment of how statutes are written and how to interpret key issues in their application. This insightful book underscores the vital role played by historical contexts, statutory language, court opinions and technology in understanding and interpreting communications law. Chapters analyse topics including the Internet, wireless and space technology, privacy, liability, the First Amendment, antitrust and copyright through the lens of timeless statutory concepts such as public interest and common carriage. Drawing on insights from related fields the book ultimately underscores the need for modernisation and adaptation in the practice of communications law in the United States. A New Look at US Communications Law is a valuable resource for scholars and students of communications, information and media, internet and technology and telecommunications law. It is also beneficial for practitioners of communications law and regulation and governance.

"In 1984, Congress simultaneously eliminated state-local regulation of cable television rates and banned telephone companies from offering cable service in their own franchise areas. Five years later, the General Accounting Office discovered that basic cable rates had risen more than four times as rapidly as the overall consumer price level since rate deregulation. As a result, Congress began to move to reimpose cable rate regulation once again, finally succeeding (over President Bush's veto) in 1992.In this book, Robert Crandall and Harold Furchtgott-Roth examine the case of reregulating cable television and find that viewers gained far more than they lost during the brief deregulatory era because cable services expanded so rapidly in the deregulated environment. Moreover, they show that new technologies, such as direct-broadcast satellites, are likely to provide considerable market discipline for cable operators in the next few years, weakening any case for rate regulation. Given regulation's history of impeding innovation, they conclude that economic welfare is more likely to be enhanced by policies aimed at encouraging new entry into video services than by rate regulation."