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Note: This site is under construction. It is to be a project of the Cyberspace Law Seminar, Spring 1998. It will provide easy access to media and cyberlaw-related statutory material that is not otherwise available on the Web in as convenient a form. It is in addition to the extensive cyberlaw research resource site prepared by the Cyberspace Law Seminar students in the spring semester, 1998, and located elsewhere on this collection of Web pages. -- N.J. [February 10, 1998]

Laws of the United States, passed by the U.S. Congress one at a time on a variety of subjects, are subsequently organized into subject matter "titles" and published by the U.S. Government Printing Office as the "United States Code," the hard copy version of which is widely available in libraries around the United States.

Any law contained in the Code can then be cited by lawyers, or others, by title and section. This is usually abreviated as, for example, 47 U.S.C. Sec. 315. (There are also private publishers of the U.S.C. For example, the West Publishing Company publishes it as the "United States Code Annotated" (or U.S.C.A.), the annotations consisting primarily of summaries of court opinions interpreting the various sections.)

Title 47 of the United States Code ("Telegraphs, Telephones, and Radiotelegraphs") contains most of the law related to radio and television stations, cable television systems, telephone companies, communications satellites -- and the Federal Communications Commission itself.

Of course, if the accuracy and applicability of a law is crucial, it is especially important to make sure that one has the very latest, revised, version of the title in question. This page provides links to the entirety of Title 47 as it was on December 2, 1997.

Because the entire title consists of 449 pages (in Times Roman 12 point type), it has been broken into more manageable sections for the convenience of the reader. For the most part, these contain logical, subject matter breaks.

As with any other Web pages, the files can be searched for key words, or section numbers, with Web browser page-search features. For example, in Netscape Communicator it is called "Find in Page" within the drop-down menu called "Edit."

For those interested primarily in radio, television and cable television the most relevant files would be Chapter 5, Subchapter III, and Chapter 5, Subchapter V-A.

For ease of reference by the user, the 14 files (with approximate pages) [and beginning section number] are:

Chapter 1. Telegraphs (4) [1]

Chapter 2. Submarine Cables (5) [21]

Chapter 3. Radiotelegraphs (repealed) (1) [51]

Chapter 4. Radio Act of 1927 (repealed) (1) [81]

Chapter 5. Wire or Radio Communication. Subchapter I, General Provisions (42) [151]

Chapter 5. Wire or Radio Communication. Subchapter II, Common Carriers (112) [201]

Chapter 5. Wire or Radio Communication. Subchapter III, Special Provisions Relating to Radio (119) [301]

Chapter 5. Wire or Radio Communication. Subchapter IV, Procedural and Administrative Provisions (13) [401]

Chapter 5. Wire or Radio Communication. Subchapter V, Penal Provisions; Forfeitures (9) [501]

Chapter 5. Wire or Radio Communication. Subchapter V-A, Cable Communications (79) [521]

Chapter 5. Wire or Radio Communication. Subchapter VI, Miscellaneous Provisions(19) [601]

Chapter 6. Communications Satellite System (17) [701]

Chapter 8. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (23) [901]

Chapter 9. Interception of Digital and Other Communications (15) [1001]

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