Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2003
Abstract
Following the introduction, Part II makes the case that public accommodation law is an appropriate legal vehicle to establish a right of Internet access. Part III begins with a brief review of the current state of public accommodation law followed by a consideration, in light of that review, of some of the possible limitations of public accommodation principles for regulating the Internet. I will then identify which aspects of the Internet should be classified as places of public accommodation. In this connection, I will examine debates about the nature and scope of public accommodation principles as they apply to persons with disabilities-the area in which the most vigorous debates about public accommodation are occurring.
Part IV will further develop an analytical justification for regulating the Internet by means of public accommodation law. To this end, Part IV will begin with a challenge to the increasing dominance of the private contract model for Internet governance. Following the lead of Thomas Grey's seminal article on the "disintegration" of property, I suggest that recent property law scholarship provides useful frameworks for thinking about the questions that will drive this debate, namely how to secure public access and rights to the Internet, while also respecting concerns about control and private ownership of the Internet's complicated physical infrastructure. Part IV then explores justifications for the argument in modern property theory, and advocates a legislative effort explicitly to include Internet access in federal and state accommodation law.
Recommended Citation
76 Temp. L. Rev. 225 (2003).