The thought goes: Under the Communications Act of 1934, the FCC has the power to control the awarding and assignment of broadcast licenses, so long as the broadcasters act in the "public interest." Assuming for a moment that it was in the public interest to
ban certain books, for instance on the premise that children would be corrupted by reading them, could the FCC potentially diminish our liberties through controlling what can and what cannot be transmitted through Amazon's Whispernet service? Mr. Collins, a former Judicial Fellow at the U.S. Supreme Court,
thinks so:
Quote:
|
We may not yet know the actual reach of the FCC's authority to regulate the brave new world of electronic books. But if history is any guide, it will only be a matter of time before some well-meaning lawmaker or some ardent advocacy group suggests that the use of the "public airwaves" justifies regulating e-books as we do some other mass media. So emboldened, the FCC could one day go after e-books like, say, The Essential Lenny Bruce or an illustrated version of D.H. Lawrence’s novel Women in Love — to protect our children, of course.
|
A scary thought.