supreme court

CBS is Finally Off the Hook for the 8 year-old “Wardrobe Malfunction,” But Next Time will be Different

by Lizbeth Hasse

8 years later and it’s still hot news. This summer session, the Supreme Court, finally, officially, put the CBS Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction” matter to rest. It let stand a 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that, in 2008, threw out the FCC’s $550,000 fine against CBS for its 2004 broadcast of a fleeting view of singer Janet Jackson’s breast.

That 2008 Appellate Ruling deemed the FCC’s fine for the network’s unplanned glimpse to be “arbitrary and capricious,” an unexplained departure from what the Appellate Court described as a 30-year FCC policy of exempting “fleeting” moments of indecency from the scope of the indecency broadcast ban [18 U.S.C. § 1464, prohibits the broadcasting of “any obscene, indecent, or profane language”].

Stealing Valor is Not Yet a Federal Crime

by Lizbeth Hasse

With all the clamor recently about some high-profile Supreme Court rulings– especially, those addressing immigration and healthcare legislation – one case about the exercise of First Amendment free speech rights received little public attention outside of the military communities.

On June 28th, the Supreme Court ruled that the government does not have the power to punish individuals for lying about their receipt of military awards. Such a law, the majority said in a 6 to 3 decision, is an unconstitutional infringement of free speech.

The First Sale Doctrine: Made in the U.S.A. Only?

by Lizbeth Hasse
The Supreme Court decided on Monday, April 16, to hear a case about a Cornell student from Thailand who thought he could finance his education (and more) by reselling to U.S. students textbooks that he bought in Thailand. What could be wrong with that?

The first sale doctrine in copyright law allows purchasers of any copyrighted work to resell or use the particular copy in many ways without the copyright holder’s permission.
It is codified in section 109(a) of the Copyright Act, stating “the owner of a particular copy…lawfully made under this title…is entitled, without the authority of the copyright owner, to sell or otherwise dispose of the possession of that copy.”
It is because of the first sale doctrine that entities such as libraries, used books and video game stores, and sellers on eBay are allowed to lend, sell or lease the books and games they have purchased.
With the Cornell Student from Thailand, the Supreme Court has taken the opportunity to clarify the applicability of the first sale doctrine to copyrighted goods manufactured in a foreign country.
The justices have decided to review Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., involving textbook maker John Wiley & Sons and Thai national Supap Kirtsaeng, who was studying at Cornell University at the time he resold the textbooks.
Supap had his family send him copies of Wiley textbooks purchased abroad, and then resold them on eBay at a profit, without the publisher’s consent, sometimes called “gray marketing”. Because the evidence shows Supap profiting $900,000 to $1.2 million in sales, it is likely that he was running a business on this model.