The
Fight for Open Access
| In mid-December, four Massachusetts
communities in an ongoing legal battle with AT&T over open access filed a request with
the Commonwealth's Department of Telecommunications and Energy's (DTE) Cable Television
Division for full hearings on whether open access is in the public interest. The communities earlier refused to allow transfer of cable licenses from
MediaOne to AT&T unless AT&T agreed to offer Internet |
Service Providers non-discriminatory
access to the broadband network. Despite AT&T's
recent high-profile "reversal" on the issue of open access, it responded to the
request by asking the DTE for a quick ruling declaring that local open access rules are
unlawful.
Berkman Center director Charles Nesson and attorney Kevin Conway of Conway, Crowley and Homer are
representing these communities pro bono. |
We invite your participation in this
openlaw forum to help develop the case.
Berkman Professor Lawrence Lessig and Mark Lemley have filed testimony with the FCC in
connection with the proposed AT&T - MediaOne merger. They argued for open access,
asserting that closed access—promoted by the merger and the FCC's deregulatory
stance—threatens the Internet and ignores its end-to-end architectural principles. |
In The News |
| "Net Loss" - Boston Phoenix, Jan. 7, 2000, by Dan Kennedy
OpenNet Coalition's press release
National Press Club briefing on open access, featuring Lawrence
Lessig (cybercast archive)
Related Slashdot discussion |
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