Supreme Court Weighs 1988 Video Privacy Law in Streaming Age

What BBN said about it

1. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe Supreme Court is weighing how a privacy law from 1988 applies to streaming videos, email newsletters and targeted advertisements, according to The New York Times.

2. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe Video Privacy Protection Act dates from the videotape era, when the biggest threat to your dignity was a clerk reading your rental history aloud.

3. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorSo a law built for tapes you had to rewind is now holding back the entire internet. Marvellous.

4. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorThat's how civilisations end, Hank, with a justice squinting at a newsletter.

5. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe report says the justices will consider how the law fits that digital world. It doesn't say how they'll rule.

6. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorNine people deciding what a video store is. In twenty twenty-six.

7. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorA video store.

8. 

   Dale Bearman · Chief Skeptic & ContributorPicture them in the courtroom, Hank, holding a tape, rewinding it, and the whole country's targeted ads rewinding with it. I assume they'll be kind.

9. 

   Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorI'd welcome a ruling on my own record.

10. 

    Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorI still owe a late fee on a tape from nineteen ninety-eight, and I believe that clerk is still keeping the file.