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Supreme Court Upholds Consumer Right To Re-Sell Media Bought Overseas

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday March 19, 2013 @ 9:55am PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Big Deals TV, Copyright, Copyright Law, Supreme Court

Supreme CourtUPDATE, 12:04 PM: The MPAA says that today’s Supreme Court decision “will hinder American businesses’ ability to compete overseas to the detriment of the long-term economic interests of the United States, and particularly its creative industries.” The trade group adds that it will “study the decision further before determining the most appropriate action for us to take.”

PREVIOUS, 9:55 AM: The 6-to-3 decision just handed a big defeat to the MPAA and other content providers by potentially undermining companies’ ability to charge different prices for books, CDs, DVDs, software, video games and other works in different countries. In the case, Kirtsaeng v John Wiley & Sons, entertainment companies sided with the book publisher against an entrepreneurial Thai college student studying in the U.S. Supap Kirtsaeng discovered that textbooks cost far less in Thailand than in the U.S. He turned that into a business, importing textbooks that he re-sold here for less than the publisher charged. Wiley said that violated its copyright; Kirtsaeng said it complied with the first-sale doctrine that enables people to freely re-sell content that they’ve bought. The MPAA and RIAA said in a brief supporting Wiley that extending the first-sale doctrine to works sold abroad “could impede authors’ ability to control entry into distinct markets, limit their flexibility to adapt to market conditions, or undermine territorial licensing agreements.” READ MORE »

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‘Die Hard’ Director To Do Hard Time For Role In Pellicano Scandal After Top Court Denies Appeal

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Tuesday January 15, 2013 @ 1:35pm PSTTags: John McTiernan, Supreme Court

John McTiernan has run out of ways to get out of serving a year in prison for his role in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping scandal. On Monday, the Supreme Court decided  it would not hear the Die Hard director’s appeal to reverse his guilty plea in the case. McTiernan was sentenced to 12 months behind bars in October 2010 after pleading guilty that summer to two counts of making false statements to the FBI in 2006 and one count of perjury for lying to a federal judge while trying to withdraw a guilty plea. McTiernan had played fast and loose with the truth with the bureau: He denied ever talking about wiretapping with Pellicano. However, the FBI had recordings of the Hollywood P.I. talking about McTiernan hiring him to wiretap producer Chuck Roven during the making of 2002′s Rollerball. Pellicano is currently serving 15 years in jail on racketeering charges. Read More »

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Televised Court Proceedings Would “Miseducate” Public, Justice Scalia Says

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday July 26, 2012 @ 8:57am PDTTags: Supreme Court

“Most of the American people would see 15-second takeouts, and they wouldn’t be characteristic,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia tells C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb in an interview to be broadcast this Sunday. Lamb has long championed cameras in courtrooms including the Supreme Court — and Scalia has … Read More »

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Supreme Court Says CBS Doesn’t Have To Pay For “Wardrobe Malfunction”

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Friday June 29, 2012 @ 8:55am PDTTags: CBS, FCC, Indecency, Janet Jackson, Supreme Court

It’s a mixed day for broadcasters at the U.S. Supreme Court — but with a limited win for CBS in the case of Janet Jackson’s famously exposed nipple in her performance with Justin Timberlake at the 2004 Super Bowl. Justices upheld a lower court ruling that overturned the FCC‘s $550,000 fine against the network for violating rules that limit indecent broadcasts. It was unclear at the time whether the FCC’s ban on fleeting expletives also applied to fleeting images, Chief Justice John Roberts said — adding, though, that Jackson and Timberlake “strained the credulity of the public by terming the episode a ‘wardrobe malfunction’.” Since then, the FCC has clarified its rules somewhat. “It is now clear that the brevity of an indecent broadcast—be it word or image—cannot immunize it from FCC censure,” he says. As a result, “any future ‘wardrobe malfunctions’ will not be protected” on the same grounds. Read More »

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Supreme Court Rules For Broadcasters In Landmark Indecency Case

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday June 21, 2012 @ 8:48am PDTTags: Big Deals TV, FCC, Indecency, NYPD Blue, Supreme Court

The 8-0 vote by the Supreme Court this morning means broadcast networks have won their long fight against the FCC over current rules governing fleeting expletives and nudity during primetime programming. The justices didn’t rule on the constitutionality of the FCC’s … Read More »

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Broadcast Networks Will Enable Parents To Control Kids’ Viewing Of Streamed Shows

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Monday June 11, 2012 @ 5:36am PDTTags: FCC, Supreme Court

UPDATE, 1:25 PM: The networks’ online video ratings announcement looks like thin gruel to the Parents Television Council, which fights broadcast indecency. The TV content ratings system is “a facade” marred by “inaccurate and inconsistent ratings designated by the networks themselves with no accountability,” PTC President Tim Winter says. If each network ends up with a different system then it will “promote even more inconsistency.” The timing of the announcement just before the U.S. Supreme Court’s expected ruling on broadcast decency strikes him as an attempt “to sway the Court’s and the public’s opinion. This is too big an issue to continue playing games.”

PREVIOUS, 5:36 AM: It’s no coincidence that the carefully stage-managed announcement was released as we await the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on how to handle broadcast indecency. And it raises more questions than it answers. Basically it says that each network’s website will decide how it will use ratings information for streamed shows, but they’ll do something by December. Will any make it possible for parents to automatically block certain shows on their kids’ computers? We’ll see. Meanwhile, the usual suspects are right on schedule with prepared statements supporting the announcement. FCC chairman Julius Genachowski says he applauds “the networks’ commitment to empower parents.” No one will be shocked to learn that network-backed advocacy group TV Watch also likes the news. “Parents have overwhelmingly stated that they, not the government, are better at making decisions about what their children view on television” says executive director Jim Dyke. “By taking this step today, these networks are giving parents an expanded set of tools to help determine what their children watch based on their own taste, style and age.” Here’s the announcement:

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Supreme Court Upholds Right To Reinstate Copyrights For Works In The Public Domain

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday January 18, 2012 @ 1:08pm PSTTags: Copyright, Copyright Law, Supreme Court

The 6-2 U.S. Supreme Court decision favors content owners including Hollywood studios over an unusual coalition of public interest and Internet activists including Google. At issue was whether the federal government had the right in 1994 to pass a law … Read More »

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TV Indecency Fight Reaches Supreme Court

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday January 10, 2012 @ 5:38pm PSTTags: FCC, Supreme Court

The U.S. Supreme Court seemed disinclined during a hearing today to meddle with FCC rules governing decency on the public airwaves. The nation’s television networks seek to overturn a 1978 decision that upheld the FCC’s authority to regulate radio and television content, at least during the hours when children are likely to be watching or listening. For a long time following the 1978 ruling the FCC let slide without penalty occasional one-time uses of curse words. But following several awards shows with cursing celebrities in 2002 and 2003, the FCC toughened its policy. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York declared the FCC policy unconstitutionally vague. Chief Justice John Roberts, the only member of the court with young children, said “All we are asking for, what the government is asking for, is a few channels where … they are not going to hear the S-word, the F-word, they are not going to see nudity.” Justice Antonin Scalia also favored regulation. “These are public airwaves. The government is entitled to insist upon a certain modicum of decency.” Justice Anthony Kennedy suggested the indecency rules were “an important symbol for our society, that we aspire to a culture that’s not vulgar in a very small segment.” Read More »

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Senate Panel Ponders Supreme Court TV; Specter Says C-SPAN “Ready, Willing”

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday December 6, 2011 @ 10:59am PSTTags: Congress, Supreme Court

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Tuesday debated whether Congress could force the Supreme Court to allow cameras to broadcast arguments live — or whether it even should. The sticking point, of course, is that whole separation of powers thing. … Read More »

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NBCUniversal Loses Court Appeal To Deny ‘Ghost Hunters’ Breach Of Contract Suit

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Monday November 7, 2011 @ 11:02pm PSTTags: Breach of Contract, Copyright, Ghost Hunters, NBCUniversal, Supreme Court, Syfy

The U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by NBUniversal to review a lower court ruling that reinstated a complaint alleging that the company’s NBC network stole the idea for its Syfy series Ghost Hunters. Parapsychologist Larry Montz and publicist … Read More »

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