Communications Law (Spring 2020)
{Please note that this is a “live” syllabus. There will be rolling changes, especially with respect to scheduling groups etc. but also occasionally in other ways.}
Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia
LAW 424-001 Communications Law
Spring 2019: Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. Room B101
3 Credits
Jon Festinger, Q.C.
Adjunct Professor, Allard School of Law
Professor of Professional Practice (SFU) & Faculty, Centre for Digital Media
Faculty in Residence, UBC Emerging Media Lab
Honorary Industry Professor, Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London School of Law
Whiteboard Law
Work: 604-568-9192 Cell: 604-837-6426
E-mail: jon@fblawstrategy.com; jfestinger@telus.net
Twitter: @jonfestinger
PSN: cdmjon
Skype: jon.festinger
Office Hours: By appointment. Generally after class, Tuesdays but am available by appointment or Skype. Please email anytime, even on short notice, to confirm availability.
Technical Resources for Badges & Website:
Richard Tape, UBC CTLT – richard.tape@ubc.ca
Course Website: http://www.videogamelaw.allard.ubc.ca
Related Websites: http://www.commlaw.allard.ubc.ca ; https://arts-foundations.sites.olt.ubc.ca
Course YouTube Page: http://www.youtube.com/user/VideoGameLaw
(Thanks to UBC Centre for Teaching, Learning & Technology for design, implementation and continuing support)
Twitter to Website: Add #allardcomm to tweets and re-tweets to post in Twitter widget at Course Blog
- Course Description and Purpose
This course covers the legal and regulatory aspects of telecommunications, broadcasting and the Internet. It is intended as the post-millennial successor to telecommunications and media law courses that have been standard fare for decades. In addition to dealing with the legal and regulatory aspects of statutorily determined quasi-monopoly business environments regulated by the CRTC and subject to administrative law oversight, the course encompasses the digital age of emergent technologies that provide a significant degree of freedom and control to individual users.
This course begins from the reality that telecommunications remains the essential backbone for the carriage of content and data (through the internet or otherwise). From this starting point we will examine the common legal framework for all communications in Canada (including statutory provisions and regulatory policies relating to telecommunications, broadcasting, copyright, privacy, competition law, and free trade). We will then apply that framework to analyze issues as diverse as net neutrality; personal privacy; government and corporate surveillance; cultural and industrial protectionism including ownership restrictions; wireless regulation and oversight; the implications of international laws, treaties and accords; political and economic regulation and policing of the internet; journalism in the post-Snowden age; as well as the future of freedoms of creative and political expression in all of these emergent contexts.
- LEARNING OUTCOMES
After taking this course you will not be magically transformed into a seasoned communications law lawyer. However you should be able to confidently identify and explore the legal issues arising and evolving in the communications landscape, as well as understand the societal tensions and compromises that inevitably arise. To practice effectively in the area you will need to be able to think critically and through an ethical lens about the rights and responsibilities of all the legal actors in the ongoing drama of our media landscape and the creative, political and human forces that shape it.
- PEDAGOGY
The world is ensuring that the nature, meaning and application of “communications” itself is changing and morphing every day. The scope of disruption appears to be massive and the legal questions being put into play never ending. Most important for our purposes is that the sheer amount of change coupled with it’s extraordinary pace allows us the possibility of using real world events as a living lab for emerging legal issues impacting creativity and media generally. As such the pedagogy of this course is to facilitate engagement with real world issues, while identifying their legal background and antecedents.
The design of this course is predicated on the idea that what is being taught and the tools it is being taught with are in dialogue. In other words how a course is taught can be an example of what is being taught. Lectures, guided subject dialogues, student presentations, “news of the week”, guest speakers and even group exercises may all be used to promote engagement with the subject. The course is itself meant to be part of a creative dialectic.
You are expected to arrive on time and be prepared to discuss the subjects at hand.
- RULES
All students at the Allard School of Law are subject to the University’s rules on Academic Misconduct (http://vpacademic.ubc.ca/integrity/ubc-regulation-on-plagiarism/), and are expected to act with academic integrity at all times. Students should be especially aware of the University’s rules in relation to plagiarism. Plagiarism includes: copying the work of another student; copying or paraphrasing from a textbook or reference book, journal article, case or electronic source without proper footnoting; copying your own work that has already been submitted for another course in this degree or another degree, passing off the ideas of another person as your own. If you plagiarize, you will be subject to penalties set out in the UBC calendar. (http://www.calendar.ubc.ca/vancouver/index.cfm?tree=3,54,111,959)
In this class: 1) everyone is allowed to feel they can learn in a safe and caring environment; 2) everyone learns about, understands, appreciates, and respects varied races, classes, genders, physical and mental abilities, and sexualities; 3) everyone matters; 4) all individuals are to be respected and treated with dignity and civility; and 5) everyone shares the responsibility for making the class, and the Academy, a positive and better place to live, work, and learn. (Source: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-professor-blog/creating-respectful-classroom-environment/)
- COURSE WEBSITE
https://commlaw.allard.ubc.ca/
- Please create an account at https://cms.ubc.ca/using your CWL.
- Once you create an account and sign in at https://cms.ubc.ca/you can click your name in the top right. Half way down the following page will be your WordPress email address.
- Send me your WordPress email address at jfestinger@telus.net or at jon@fblawstrategy.com
- Then, I will invite you to participate with authoring privileges via your WordPress email address.
COURSE MATERIALS
On Reserve:
10 x McCarthy Tétrault LLP Red, Blue, & Black books (Thank You McCarthy Tétrault LLP )
RESOURCE MATERIALS:
James Grimmelmann, Internet Law: Cases and Problems 6th Edition (Semaphore Press) http://internetcasebook.com
James Boyle & Jennifer Jenkins, Intellectual Property: Law & The Information Society Cases and Materials 3rd Edition (An Open Course Book) http://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/openip
Lessig, L. CODE 2.0. (Basic Books) http://codev2.cc/download+remix/
OTHER:
In preparation for the weekly discussions, the class will read the discussion outlines prepared by their fellow students.
- METHOD OF EVALUATION
Term paper accounts for 60% of the final grade.
- A minimum 5000 word paper is expected. The word requirement is inclusive of footnotes or endnotes but exclusive of the bibliography.
- The paper is due on the last day of the exam period at 4:00 p.m.
- Papers must be handed in at the Reception Desk in paper format, and e-mailed to the Instructor in Word format.
Class Participation accounts for 40% of the final grade
- 25% of the mark will be based on group preparation and presentation of a Discussion Outline that must be created and handed out to the class—preferably by posting on the course website—at least a week before your particular group-led discussion takes place.
- 15% for student participation in the other course activities including seminar discussions etc.
- SYLLABUS
Class 1: January 7, 2020
Jon’s Talk: “Introducing the Course”
- Objectives of the course
- Evaluation
- Role of “News of the Week”
- Discussion Hour structure; Formation of Student Discussion Topic Groups, Distribution of Materials
Class 2: January 14, 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Student Bio’s, interests, biases & objectives
- Why are you taking this course?
- What do you hope to get out of it?
- Syllabus/topic input/comments/reactions
Jon’s Talk: “Mapping Communications Law 1.0 & 2.0: A Topology”
Materials:
John Milton – “Areopagitica” https://www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/areopagitica/text.html
Class 3: January 21, 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk: “The Roles of Communications & Content in Justice, Sovereignty & Culture”
Materials: UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, October 20, 2005 (Paris: UNESCO) http://en.unesco.org/creativity/sites/creativity/files/passeport-convention2005-web2.pdf
Class 4: January 28, 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk:“The Many Meanings of Broadcasting”
Materials: Capital Cities Communications Inc. v. CRTC. [1978] 2 S.C.R. 141 https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/2586/index.do
Collaborative Event: Invent a media technology that will impact the world (brainstorming session)
Student Discussants: Chris Park, Anant Sidhu, Davin Wong
Class 5: February 4, 2020
Special Guest: The Honourable Marshall Rothstein C.C., Q.C. will speak about In Reference re Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-167 and Broadcasting Order CRTC 2010-168, 2012 SCC 68, [2012] 3 S.C.R. 489
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk: “Telecommunications Policy: Origins & Regulation”
Materials: Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2016-496 http://www.crtc.gc.ca/eng/archive/2016/2016-496.htm
Student Discussants: Isabel Budd, Tayla Byatt, Finlay Jamieson, Zachary Larson
Class 6: February 11 , 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk: “Broadcasting Policy: Origins, Regulation & Cases”
Materials: Reference re Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-167 and Broadcasting Order CRTC 2010-168, [2012] 3 S.C.R. 489 https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/12767/1/document.do
Student Discussants: Kara Bodie, Tristan Packwood-Greaves, Natasha Rygnestad-Stahl , Alexander Tatti
[READING WEEK(S)]
Class 7: March 3, 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk: “Net Neutrality, Internet Regulation, International Data Transmission & Jurisdiction in the Cloud“
Materials: Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination Tim Wu https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=388863
Student Discussants: Gabrielle Berinstien, Jocelyn Hassell, Kate Jones, Leah Singer
Class 8: March 10, 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk: “A.I. Virtual Reality MEdia & the Rule of Law”
Materials: Tessling on My Brain: The Future of Lie Detection and Brain Privacy in the Criminal Justice System – Ian Kerr, Max Binnie, Cynthia Aoki https://papers.ssrn.com/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1299291
Student Discussants:
Group 1 – Sunny Garcha, Wesley Lui, Fiona McLean & Jalen Nordmark
Group 2 – Tessa Davis, Steven Dhillon, Eunize Lao, Brook Mailey
Class 9: March 17, 2020
Jon’s Talk: “Consumer/User/Creator Challenges: Privacy, Copyright & Mass Contracts in the Digital World “
Materials: Communications: Blindspot of Western Marxism – Dallas W. Smythe https://journals.uvic.ca/index.php/ctheory/article/download/13715/4463
Student Discussants: Jennifer Nguyen, Coco Paris, Claire Robertson, Shona Zhang
Class 10: March 24, 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk: “Corporate & Governmental Surveillance”
Materials: “The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty” – J.Q. Whitman http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1647&context=fss_papers
Student Discussants: James Barth, Grace Lichtenwald, Sancho McCann
Class 11: March 31, 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk: “Freedom of Expression 2.0: Journalism in the Post Snowden Post Trump World “
Materials: Gay Alliance Toward Equality v. Vancouver Sun, [1979] 2 S.C.R. 435 https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/6182/index.do
Collaborative Event: Designing a “Communications Act” for today: Setting policy priorities (brainstorming session)
Class 12: April 7, 2020
News of the Week Discussions
Jon’s Talk: “The Future of Communications (Law)“
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR PAPERS & EXAMS.
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