IP: AT&T's First Amendment Problem, And Ours

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>
>Date: Sun, 27 May 2001 12:35:44 -0400
>To: Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>
>From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
>Subject: AT&T's First Amendment Problem, And Ours
>
>AT&T'S FIRST AMENDMENT PROBLEM, AND OURS
>
>Costly
>
>by Brendan I. Koerner
>
>Post date 05.08.01 | Issue date 05.14.01
>
>When you think "First Amendment martyr," you don't exactly think
>AT&T. It's a safe bet that few executives at the telecom giant tote
>aclu membership cards or pace their office corridors reciting the
>lyrics to "Fight the Power." But AT&T has decided that channeling
>William Kunstler is a shrewd (if deeply dishonest) way to ward off
>government regulation. And, incredibly, it's working.
>
>In July 1999, AT&T filed a lawsuit in Broward County, Florida,
>claiming its First Amendment rights were under siege. At issue was
>the use of "broadband" cable lines--wires that now carry cable
>television but are capable of carrying telephone, cable, and Internet
>data simultaneously. AT&T owns the lines in Broward County, and
>officials there had ordered the company to give competing Internet
>service providers access to the wires for a reasonable fee. According
>to AT&T, by dictating what content traveled over its wires, Broward's
>ordinance trampled on its right to free speech.
>
>http://www.thenewrepublic.com/051401/koerner051401.html



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