The distinction between carriage and content

The distinction between carriage and content has been offered as a conceptual means for distinguishing between new telecommunications activities which should be subject to regulation and those which should be unregulated. The author explores aspects of the limitations of that distinction and examines how a carrier can affect the content of the message, as well as who the message bearers and receivers will be. It is suggested that the most significant regulatory problems are at the boundary between carriage and content and that the carriage-content distinction should not be extended beyond its useful role (ie where the communications channel is effectively infinite). Throughout this article, reference is made to emerging issues of videotex regulation.