2/4: Barbara van Schewick - The FCC’s Open Internet Proceeding – Implications for Political Speech

February 4, 2010 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Barbara van Schewick's research focuses on the economic, regulatory, and strategic implications of communication networks. In particular, she explores how changes in the architecture of computer networks affect the economic environment for innovation and competition on the Internet, and how the law should react to these changes. This work has made her a leading expert on the issue of network neutrality. Her book "Internet Architecture and Innovation" will be published by MIT Press this spring. Professor van Schewick is the Faculty Director of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society and an assistant professor of electrical engineering (by courtesy) at Stanford's Department of Electrical Engineering. Who should decide how users can use the Internet? users or network providers? Should network providers be allowed to block certain applications or content on their networks? Triggered by changes in Internet technology, these questions over network neutrality have moved to the center of the regulatory and legislative debates surrounding the Internet worldwide. They are at the core of the Open Internet Proceeding, launched by the Federal Communications Commission in October 2009 to explore what rules are needed to secure the Internet's openness. The talk will give an overview of the draft rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission and explain how the alternative options under consideration would affect the environment for political speech in the United States.

Presented by the Program on Liberation Technology, pary of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law.
For further information regarding the series:
http://cddrl.stanford.edu/research/program_on_liberation_technology/

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