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Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

Job opportunities in media law at your fingertips

By on February 16, 2015 in Copyright, FCC, First Amendment, Internet, Journalism, Privacy, Transparency

FIND JOBIt’s never too early – or too late – to start looking for the internship, fellowship, or job that is right for you.  However, the process of sifting through hundreds of postings looking for what you want can be daunting.  That is why the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy created its Job Center.  It’s a centralized place to find opportunities to work in the field of media law and policy.

We Bring Our Network to You

The UNC Center for Media Law and Policy has a large (and growing) network of media law and policy minded folks who are often looking for people just like you.  Here is just one example: The multidisciplinary project Privacy Tools For Sharing Research Data at Harvard is looking for undergraduates, law students, graduate students, postdocs, and visiting scholars to join its efforts to help enable the collection, analysis, and sharing of sensitive data while providing robust privacy protections.  If you are willing to live in Boston for the summer (and who wouldn’t?), this could be a great summer gig.

Easy to Use

You can easily find the perfect job for you by using our advanced search feature to search by location, keyword, or practice area.  Also, try browsing by job type or category for a more expansive look at what we have to offer.  Just like that, opportunities for internships, fellowships, and academic teaching positions (Academic – Journalism and Academic – Law) are at your fingertips.

Wide Variety of Jobs

The job opportunities in our database are endless.  If it pertains to media law, we have it.  Our categories include: IP, Copyright, Photo Journalism, Broadcast, FTC listings, Cyber Law, and Trademark.  It’s a one-stop shop for media law jobs.  Here is a list of some of my favorite recent postings:

  • Internship – NPR, Office of the General Counsel: A 10-week program that provides legal interns with an opportunity to work on diverse assignments and a wide range of legal issues, including First Amendment and intellectual property.
  • The ITS Global Policy Fellowship Program: A 4-week program in Brazil that provides fellows from around the world who are interested in internet and technology policy with an opportunity to deepen their knowledge about the Brazilian technology industry.
  • Free Press Public Interest Summer Associate: A 10-12-week program that provides summer associates with an opportunity to work on projects that focus on Net Neutrality, media ownership rules, antitrust law, the use of spectrum, wireless consumer protections and cable television policy.

The Time is Now

If you are currently a student, there are still opportunities for you to find the perfect summer position after on campus interviews are over.  Recent graduates and experienced job seekers, employers’ needs are ever changing, so it pays to be persistent with your job search.  Remember our Job Center is available year-round.  Use it, along with other UNC Center for Media Law and Policy resources, to land your dream job.

  • Join the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy group on LinkedIn!
  • Read about UNC dual degree student Natasha Duarte’s summer internship experience at the Electronic Privacy Information Center here.
  • Read about UNC dual degree student Kevin Delaney’s summer internship experience at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press here.

Chanda Marlowe is a 2L at the University of North Carolina School of Law

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Call for Papers – First Amendment Networks: Issues in Net Neutrality

By on August 12, 2014 in FCC, First Amendment

FALROn October 24, 2014, we will be partnering with the First Amendment Law Review to help host their annual symposium, which will be focused on network neutrality and the First Amendment.  We’ll post more information about the symposium in the next few weeks, but if you are a scholar who writes in this area, you may be interested in submitting a paper to the First Amendment Law Review (note: the deadline is October 13).  Here is their call for papers:

The First Amendment Law Review at the University of North Carolina School of Law is delighted to announce a Call for Papers for its Symposium Edition, First Amendment Networks: Issues in Net Neutrality.

The Symposium Edition seeks papers covering the breadth of topics at the intersection of the First Amendment and the current state of network neutrality regulation. The Symposium Edition, in conjunction with the fall symposium at the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill campus, hopes to bring a variety of perspectives from multiple disciplines to bear on the First Amendment freedoms implicated in the net neutrality debate. The Symposium Edition seeks papers primarily with a legal focus, but is interested in outstanding papers also from economics, business, and government which can provide insights into this important discussion. Submissions should be delivered via email to falr@unc.edu by October 13 to be considered for publication.

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The First Amendment Law Review (FALR) is a student-edited legal journal that seeks to promote and protect the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment through publishing scholarly writings on, and promoting discussion of, issues related to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

FALR publishes professional and student articles for the benefit of scholars and practitioners. Professional contributions are composed of scholarly articles, symposium papers, and novel, interesting essays on a variety of issues touching the First Amendment. Student contributions are composed of scholarly examinations of discrete First Amendment topics and recent developments in First Amendment law.

As the only legal journal in the country dedicated to the First Amendment, FALR seeks to provide as broad and inclusive a forum as possible for the discussion of First Amendment issues. To that end, FALR does not apply any strict page or footnote requirements to professional papers, but considers each submission on a case-by-case basis. Substantial weight will be given to those submissions that present a subject in traditional legal journal format: introduction, background, legal analysis, legal argument, and conclusion. While strong preference is given to professional pieces, the editorial board will consider student-written articles.

All submissions should be in Microsoft Word format, 12-point font, preferably Times New Roman. The text itself should be double-spaced; footnotes should be single-spaced. FALR uses The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. All submissions should comply with The Bluebook. For more information on the journal, please visit http://www.law.unc.edu/journals/falr/

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Appeals court (mostly) strikes down net neutrality rules

By on January 14, 2014 in FCC, Internet

The D.C. Circuit today held that the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality nondiscrimination rules were invalid because the FCC lacked the authority to regulate how Internet providers treat content. The “Open Internet” rules, passed in 2010, required ISPs to treat all Internet content equally. Under the rules, a provider such as Verizon could not block or slow down certain Internet content or allow companies to pay for their content to be delivered faster. The Court said that the FCC can only impose such regulations on common carriers, such as telephone companies, and that ISPs are not common carriers. Read the opinion here.

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New FCC Chair to Industry: Unlock Customers’ Phones

By on November 15, 2013 in Copyright, FCC

tom wheeler The back-and-forth over regulation of wireless phones continues this week. New FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler asked the CTIA Wireless Association to recommend that its members, including AT&T, Verizon and other carriers, voluntarily allow consumers to “unlock” their wireless phones “when the applicable service contract, installment plan, or ETF [early termination fee] has been fulfilled” (Note that this would not help in-contract customers who want to unlock their phones for the purposes of using foreign carriers during international travel). He implied that he would push for FCC regulations forcing carriers to allow unlocking if the practice was not adopted voluntarily by the mobile phone industry.

This continues a decade of confusion for customers of U.S. carriers. In 2006, the Librarian of Congress, tasked every three years by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) to consider exemptions to anticircumvention rules, created an exemption allowing mobile phone owners to modify their phones “for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.” In 2007, hacker George Hotz successfully modified his Apple iPhone to connect to networks other than AT&T, which at the time was the only wireless carrier offering the iPhone. Apple, unable to sue Hotz due to the DMCA exemption, attempted to counter Hotz’s modifications by both sending out software updates that removed the exploited security flaws and threatening to void the warranties of modified phones. In 2012, the new Librarian of Congress declined to renew its exemption, making it illegal for consumers to unlock their phones. It is this 2012 prohibition by the Librarian of Congress that Chairman Wheeler opposes.

If the mobile phone industry does not self-regulate, it’s unclear how an FCC ruling in support of unlocking phones would play out, given that the DMCA authorizes the Librarian of Congress, not the FCC, to dictate exemptions to the Act’s anticircumvention rules. The Obama administration, responding to the Librarian’s prohibition, implied that Congress or the FCC should act to make phone unlocking legal again, implying that it would support the FCC in such a decision.

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C-SPAN, UNC-TV to televise inaugural Hargrove Colloquium

By on November 4, 2013 in Center for Media Law and Policy, FCC, Internet, Journalism

C-SPAN and UNC-TV will televise today’s inaugural Wade H. Hargrove Communications Law and Policy Colloquium, hosted by the Center for Media Law and Policy. Hearst TV CEO David Barrett and ABC News President Ben Sherwood will discuss the future of TV news and the challenges and opportunities media companies face in this age of digital convergence.

The colloquium begins at 5:30 p.m. in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center on UNC’s campus and is free and open to the public. For more information, see the event page and a full description of the event and speakers by the Center’s co-director, David Ardia.

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