Intellectual Property Law

This fall: the White Spaces

By Susan Crawford

A central question for policymakers this fall is:  What should be done with the white spaces?

It’s got all the elements of a great story.  It’s got twenty years of dramatic history behind it, as the broadcasters flail around protecting their destiny (”we need additional spectrum to go digital!”) and then realize that they will have to give up some of their old spectrum to make this happen.   They’re still fighting - now over the (non-contiguous) spaces between their old stations.  They’re willing to march on Capitol Hill about this, and often do.

It’s got religion and entertainment, too.  Mega-churches and Broadway shows have been hauled in, claiming their wireless mics won’t work if other entities use the spectrum they’ve gotten used to.  And it’s got delicious irony - it turns out that the majority of the wireless mic use doesn’t fit what the FCC thinks the wireless mic guys are supposed to be doing.

It’s got technology - lots of it - as prototypes fail (or do they?) and engineers say wise things about interference.  It’s all magic, in a sense, but the experts will be opining as to how much electromagnetic energy is too much.  Too much of the color red!

It’s got the future all wrapped up in one issue.  Broadcast dies, highspeed internet access bottlenecks abound, so why not use the white spaces to get around the bottlenecks?

And it has a ticking clock.  It’s time for something to happen in the white spaces.

Full post as published by Susan Crawford Blog on September 08, 2008 (boomark / email).