Tuesday, June 28, 2005
BACKGROUND: Post by Susan Crawford about the Brand X case
http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2005/6/27/977707.html
It's More Important Than Grokster
by Susan at 01:46PM (EDT) on June 27, 2005 | Permanent Link
The consequences of BrandX (also decided today) are more important than
those of Grokster. Grokster keeps the status quo in place. BrandX opens up
a whole new world of regulatory power.
"What?" you ask. "I thought BrandX was just about the access of little
ISPs to big mean cable systems."
No. In fact, both opinions are the reverse of what they purport to be. The
Grokster opinion gives certainty to tech companies. And the BrandX opinion
takes it away again.
In BrandX, Justice Thomas gets very confused about the internet and ends
up essentially announcing that everything a user does online is an
"information service" being offered by the access provider. DNS, email
(even if some other provider is making it available), applications, you
name it -- they're all included in this package. And the FCC can make
rules about these information services under its broad "ancillary
jurisdiction."
This is very very big. This means that even though information services
like IM and email don't have to pay tariffs or interconnect with others,
they may (potentially) have to pay into the universal service fund, be
subject to CALEA, provide enhanced 911 services, provide access to the
disabled, and be subject to general consumer protection rules -- all the
subjects of the FCC's IP-enabled services NPRM. I've blogged about this a
good deal, and now it's coming true: the FCC is now squarely in charge of
all internet-protocol enabled services.
The implications of all this are staggering. This is the real news from
today. After the DC Circuit's ruling in the broadcast flag case, people
may have thought that the FCC's "ancillary jurisdiction" was in trouble.
No longer -- the FCC has been given an enormous jurisdictional surge in
power. Even though its statute -- in my view, at least -- doesn't really
give it this authority.
Whoof.
