Intellectual Property Law

Civil rights and communication rights

By Susan Crawford

Nondiscrimination rules are on my mind right now, because I’m in the middle of a paper about the subversion of the communications law “constitution” over the last few years.  Through some regulatory gymnastics and helped by a credulous Supreme Court, we’re now in the strange position of having entirely private general-purpose communications networks that can treat communications like their own dinner parties.  That wasn’t the structure we set up as a country for the post, the telegraph, or the telephone.

Someone asked me tonight whether the ability to communicate should be re-framed as a right.  I’m wondering about that.  We often frame the right to clean water as a human right, and we are beginning to do the same thing with the right to communicate online.  (2003 article here has useful references.)  I know this has been an IGF subject.   It does seem that a clear nondiscrimination rule, structural separation of transport from content, and a commitment to government investment in universal access would do the trick and would have the added benefit of being clearer than a vague “right.”  Also - right against whom?  Right against the communication companies?  Interested in views and sources on this.

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Congratulations to Joi Ito, Larry Lessig, and everyone else at Creative Commons for the big win today - described here at the Lessig blog.

Full post as published by Susan Crawford Blog on August 13, 2008 (boomark / email).