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Stephen Breyer on Technology
Supreme Court Justice (nominated by Pres. Clinton 1994)
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Newspapers may electronically reprint without permission
On intellectual property & distribution of freelance material: As a district court judge in 1997, Sotomayor heard a case brought by a group of freelance journalists who asserted that various news organizations, including the
New York Times, violated copyright laws by reproducing the freelancers' work on electronic databases and archives such as "Lexis/Nexis" without first obtaining their permission.
Sotomayor ruled against the freelancers and said that publishers were within their rights as outlined by the 1976 Copyright Act. The appellate court reversed Sotomayor's decision, siding with the freelancers, and the
Supreme Court upheld the appellate decision (therefore rejecting Sotomayor's original ruling). Justices Stevens and Breyer dissented, taking Sotomayor's position. (Tasini vs. New York Times, 1997)
Source: CNN coverage of upcoming Sotomayor hearings
, Aug 1, 2009
Congress can make laws restricting salacious "signal bleed"
Justice Breyer found himself in dissent when the Court struck down a law aimed at preventing sexually explicit channels, like the Playboy Channel, having their visual or audio signal intruding ("bleeding") into homes of viewers who had not subscribed to
such salacious stuff. Signal bleed, as it is called, was obviously a serious problem for parents concerned about their children.The majority invalidated the law on First Amendment grounds [because] the same result could have been achieved through less
intrusive methods.
But to Justice Breyer, these were technical issues calling for judicial modesty and deference to Congress. Reaching across the usual philosophical lines, Justice Breyer authored the main dissenting opinion in the case, joined by
Scalia, Rehnquist, and O'Connor. Breyer expressed the need for deference to Congress's judgment in seeking to shield children from unwanted adult-programming signals. To Justice Breyer, Congress knows best.
Source: First Among Equals, by Kenneth Starr, p. 38-39
, Oct 10, 2002
Page last updated: Mar 21, 2022