FCC对互联网的管制权：创造和限制.docVIP

35 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 15 Loyola University Chicago Law JournalFall 2003Articles*15 FCC AUTHORITY TO REGULATE THE INTERNET: CREATING IT AND LIMITING ITFCC对互联网的管制权：创造和限制James B. Speta [FNa1]Copyright (c) 2003 Loyola University Chicago School of Law; James B. Speta Three strains of rhetoric coexist in debates about the appropriate regulatory institutions for the Internet and Internet services. The first strain cried that the Internet should never be regulated and, in its strongest versions, asserted that the Internet cannot be regulated. [FN1] The second strain responds to one of the implicit assertions in the first--the assertion that the Internet has successfully grown without regulation--to note that much of its growth was possible precisely because regulation of telephone carriers prevented them from blocking this new networks expansion. [FN2] The third, more recent strain, includes arguments for significant new regulation of emerging Internet services to combat the market power of providers, guarantee access, or otherwise maintain the public interest. The specific debates range from the cable open access debate, [FN3] to multimedia instant messaging, [FN4] to interactive television [FN5]--to name only a few. *16 These rhetorical strains do not map precisely onto the possibilities for regulatory governance of the Internet, [FN6] but here there are three dominant possibilities as well. First, many propose that the Internet should remain “unregulated,” which generally means that no sector-specific regulation should be developed to address Internet carriers and services. Rather, Internet markets and market participants would be governed only by background legal regimes that apply more generally, most importantly, antitrust. Second, many propose that the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) should, as it seems to be doing currently, address Internet competition issues on a case-by-case basis, regulating when there is a clear case to do so. In this Symposi