The Internet and the Project of Communications Law

Abstract

The internet offers the potential for economic growth stemming from online human communications, but recent industry and government actions have disfavored these possibilities by treating the internet like a content-delivery supply chain. I recommend that the internet be at the center of communications policy and that laws affecting internet access be evaluated in terms of whether they further U.S. economic growth by facilitating increased emergent online diversity. The article criticizes the nearly exclusive focus of communications policy on the private economic success of infrastructure and "application" providers, and suggests that communications policy be focused on facilitating communications themselves.

Keywords: cyberlaw, internet, communications law, complex systems, economic growth theory, network neutrality