Access to information and communication infrastructure – to the internet, to broadcasting, and so forth – is important to artists who would like their work to be available to people anywhere and/or to a mass audience, as well as for those who use these types of infrastructure for marketing their work or for providing services that follow-on a sale. As a result, the entire range of issues regarding access to the information and communication infrastructure is of importance to artists. This is an area of so much policy turbulence that discussion of a variety of policy proposals as well as current law is included on this page.
Overviews
Interest in access to communication infrastructure used to be of interest to specialists, though now there is widespread recognition that it is important to us all.
The different ways in which we can access the internet are defined and determined by regulation. There are several different categories of service, explained here.
Federal Communications Commission [www.fcc.gov]
FCC/High Speed Internet Access – “Broadband”
An introduction to information and communication technology (ICT) policy and why it matters.
Association for Progressive Communications [apc.org]
APC/What are ICT and Internet Policies and Why Should We Care about Them?
A beginner’s handbook and a training curriculum for ICT policy. This page also provides links to a teaching materials for information and communication technology policy.
Association for Progressive Communications [apc.org]
Chris Nicol (Ed.)/ICT Policy: A Beginner’s Handbook
Many of the policy decisions for the internet take place at the stage of technical design rather than via traditional types of political decision-making regarding the regulation of communications. This piece discusses five different scenarios for structuring the internet in the future, with explanations both of their technical differences and of the implications of each for users.
Center for Democracy and Technology
CDT/Scenarios of Current Internet Usage
Analysis of access to infrastructure as an element of our rights under the First Amendment.
Donald McGannon Communication Research Center [http://www.fordham.edu/academics/office_of_research/research_centers__in/donald_mcgannon_comm/index.asp]
Philip M. Napoli/Access to Audiences as a First Amendment Right: Its Relevance and Implications for Media Policy
An introduction to the legal mandate that communications policy is in the public interest, with links to analyses of how the public interest is or is not being taken into account in a number of different regulatory areas.
Benton Foundation/Public Interest Obligations
http://www.benton.org/index.php?q=issues/obligations
An example of how public interest obligations affect policy considerations for a particular technology or service.
Benton Foundation [www.benton.org]
Benton Foundation/Citizen’s Guide to the Public Interest Obligations of Digital Television Broadcasters
Current Law
Current laws and regulations that affect artists’ access to infrastructure are under challenge from many directions.
A review of the current state of the regulations regarding universal access to telecommunications.
Consumers Union [Consumersunion.org]
HearUsNow.org/What’s at Stake: Universal Service
Executive summary of an analysis of the impact of current U.S. law on the ability to access the internet via broadband in the U.S.
Free Press/Consumers Union/American Civil Liberties Union [www.aclu.org]
Derek Turner/Broadband Reality Check II
Media Concentration
One way in which communication regulation affects access to infrastructure involves the extent to which concentration of content production industries is permitted. Mergers among firms in the information and communication industries, including network providers, are subject to evaluation under antitrust law as well as the need to be approved by agencies such as the Federal Communication Commission (FCC).
A description of the media ownership rules currently in place.
Common Cause [www.commoncause.org]
Common Cause/About the Media Ownership Rules
An introduction to the nature of concentration in the media industries and the impact of concentration on free speech and diversity of expression.
The Free Expression Policy Project, Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law [www.fepproject.org]
FEP/Fact Sheets on Media Democracy
This analysis of the effects of the media concentration that has resulted from the 1996 Telecommunications Act explains why media concentration matters to music.
Future of Music Coalition [www.futureofmusic.org]
Kristin Thomson & Peter DiCola/Radio Deregulation: Has It Served Citizens and Musicians?
The impact of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 on media concentration, diversity, and prices.
Common Cause [www.commoncause.org]
Celia Viggo Wexler/The Fallout from the Telecommunications Act of 1996: Unintended Consequences and Lessons Learned
What the FCC’s 2003 Decision on Media Ownership Means for Independent Producers
An explanation of media ownership rules and what recent changes in those rules mean for independent producers, including artists.
Media Access Project [www.mediaaccess.org]
Harold Feld/What the FCC’s 2003 Decision on Media Ownership Means for Independent Producers
How it looks from the perspective of municipalities.
National League of Cities [www.nlc.org]
National League of Cities/2006 National Municipal Policy: Information Technology and Communications
Community Networks
In today’s technological environment, it is possible for groups and communities to build their own information infrastructure – including networks that connect with the global internet – if governments do not provide it for them and private sector offerings are inappropriate, unavailable, or too expensive. A number of contemporary policy issues of concern to artists deal with possible changes in the legal environment that would make these types of activities illegal.
A webpage with links to a variety of resources regarding the policy aspects of community networks.
Free Press [www.freepress.net]
Free Press/Community Internet: Broadband as a Public Services
A guide for how to create and use community technology networks.
Telecommunity.us [telecommunity.us]
Telecommunity.us/Community ICT Guide
An explanation of cable television access channels under current regulation.
Federal Communications Commission [www.fcc.gov]
FCC/Cable Television Fact Sheet: Public, Educational, and Governmental Access Channels (“PEG Channels”)
A proposed policy to set aside 10% of broadband capacity for public, educational, and governmental (PEG) access.
Alliance for Community Media [www.alliancecm.org]
ACM/Public Interest Broadband Set-Aside
In every community there is spectrum – vacant broadcast channels -- that is currently unused. One policy option is to make this spectrum available to unlicensed users for innovative purposes.
New America Foundation [www.newamerica.net]
Pierre de Vries/Populating the Vacant Channels
A guide to community wi-fi networks (free wireless access throughout a community) and the policy issues involved.
Free Press [www.freepress.net]
Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network/A Beginner’s Guide: The 4 Principles of Community Networking
The range of community advantages that accrue from permitting community wireless networks to take advantage of unused spectrum.
New America Foundation [www.newamerica.net]
NAF/Examples of Consumer Benefits from “TV White Spaces” Legislation
Network Neutrality
The debate over “network neutrality” has become the center of attention in the struggle for access to infrastructure in the last couple of years. Network neutrality ensures that we have access to the information infrastructure itself. Proposed legislation dealing with “network neutrality” would affect the technological architecture of the internet in such a way that it would become more difficult, slower, or perhaps even impossible to reach some websites, and more expensive for artists and arts organizations to ensure that citizens could find their way to their materials.
An explanation of the network neutrality issue, described by this non-profit organization that works to protect the public interest in communications policy as “perhaps the most prominent and contentious issue in Internet and telecommunications policy today.”
Center for Democracy and Technology [www.cdt.org]
full paper: CDT/Preserving the Essential Internet
executive summary: CDT/Focused Internet Neutrality Legislation Warranted to Protect Open Internet
This paper explains how network neutrality works and how proposed legislation might affect our access to the infrastructure.
Center for Democracy and Technology [www.cdt.org]
Daniel J. Weitzner/The Neutral Internet: An Information Architecture for Open Societies
The legal history of net neutrality in the United States.
Free Press/Consumers Federation of America/Consumers Union/American Civil Liberties Union [www.aclu.org]
Ben Scott, Mark Cooper, & Jeannine Kenney/Why Consumers Demand Internet Freedom: Network Neutrality – Fact vs. Fiction
Common arguments made about the dangers that net neutrality presents, and responses to them.
American Civil Liberties Union [www.aclu.org]
ACLU/Net Neutrality: Myths and Facts
A brief history of legal treatment of net neutrality in the United States.
American Civil Liberties Union [www.aclu.org]
ACLU/Restoring Long-Standing Net Neutrality Protections
The impact of current legislation dealing with network neutrality on access to the internet, and proposed legal alternatives.
American Civil Liberties Union [www.aclu.org]
ACLU/Internet Freedom and Innovation at Risk
Conservative arguments in favor of restoring network neutrality.
Christian Coalition [www.cc.org]
Christian Coalition/Fast Facts for Conservatives on the Importance of “Net Neutrality”