Intersecting Points in Parallel Lines: Toward Better Harmonization of Copyright Law and Communications Law Through Statutory and Institutional Reform

This Article highlights the historic separate federal legislative path for copyright law and communications law. As the technologies for mass distribution of copyrighted content expanded in the 1970s with the nationwide development of cable television, Congress brought this medium within the scope of copyright law through the creation of a compulsory license for cable retransmission of broadcast signals. Several years later, in the realm of communications law, Congress created a new compensation scheme for retransmitted broadcast signals that was based on a negotiated, rather than statutorily-mandated, compensation scheme known as retransmission consent.